AIR RAGING

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 50, 28 August 1934, Page 10

AIR RAGING

TWO BIG EVENTS

KING'S CUP AND CENTENARY

NO. REAL COMPARISON

Thoso who arc interested in the possibilities of the Melbourne Centenary

Kir race —and they are very many— vero interested also in the King's Cup Nice, flown over four courses with the Hatfield aerodrome, London, as the conIre, Jast month, for, many thought, from the result of that race might be gathered a fuller idea of how British machines may be expected to succeed in the race from England to Melbourne in October.

Actually the King's Cup race gave no clearer idea of the chances of British machines in a race half-way round the world against the world's machines. The weather was atrociously bad on tho first day, when the ton heats were got off, and on the second day, when conditions were much better, none of the speed- machines were left in the semifilial, for the handicapping or the weather, or both, had been too severe on the fast machines. The winner • was Flight-Lieutenant Scholfield, who was a member of the 1926. British Schneider Trophy team, who'averaged'l34.l6 ni.p.h. in a Monospar, and second and third places went 1o T. Kose, in a Miles' Hawk, average 347.76 m.p.h.,. and L. Lipton, in a Moth, average 124.16 m.p.h. 1 FASTEST TIME 191 M.P.H. Fastest average-1 time was made by Captain E. Poicival in a Mew Gull owned by Prince- George, 191 m.p.h., but tho marked speed superiority of the Gull did not allow him to overhaul the machines earlier away on handicap. The Mew Gull is a single-seater, _built for speed and sport, and is quite a different machine from that flown by Sir Charles Kingsford Smith on his record solo flight from England to Australia. It' is " not a long-distance machine' and is not entered for the Melbourne Centenary race, though a Pereival Gull is entered. . . Other high speed performances were made by A. H. Cook (Comper Swift), 163.5 m.p.h.; Flight-Lieutenant .N. Comper (Compei. Streak), 175.5 m.p.h.; A. E. Borton (Airspeed Courier), 16(5 m.p.h.;: Flight-Lieutenant 11. n. Leech (Percival Gull), 159.75 m.p.h.; and Captain H. S. Broad (D.H. Dragon. Six), 166 m.p.h. • . The performances of the Airspeed Courier and tho Dragon Six are interesting in that the Couriers will compete in the speed section of the big race, and'the New Zealand entry (Squadron-Leader Hewett and FlyingOffleer Kay) are to fly a Dragon in tho handicap section. STILL A MYSTERY. The de Havilland Comet was not a competitor in the King's Cup race and is .still more or less, of a mystery, and though machines for the King's Cup were-tuned to the. limit of .standard equipment the. Couriers and their other Airspeed cousins, which sro the other bcrious British contenders in the speed ■section, will without any doubt be powered more heavily than the standard models. Even so, and allowing for the atrociously bad weather—so bad that leading edges and propellers were knocked about by rain and hail —tUe speeds established were not heartening when compared with tho normal operating speeds of American airline machines. Many of tho American lines operate at very moderate speeds, nnd there are far moro machines run-ning-at below. 150 m.p.h. than above that speed, but the exceptions climb very' high;: Orions at 100 m.p.h. over long distances, Boeings at 165 to 180 m.-p.il. and, heavy-payload Douglas airliners at ■ 200 m.p.h. and over. European lines also are operating regularly at speeds^as-high as 175 m.p.h; The-King's Cup race is not a speed race first and last, though scratch machines are set an all-out task by the handicapping, but the best speeds established by leading pilots on tuned machines were well below those of commercial machines in regular work in- America and on the Continent. England's hopes in the big race appear to lie in the three Comets, for a victory to a British.pilot (Colonel J. C. Fitzmaurice) in-an- American Uellanca would, after all, be but half a British victory. ,■■••• SOME FORECASTS. In,the same sense a' win by -Sir Charles . Kingsford Smith—and he is placed among the probable place-getters by many authorities —would be an Australian-American win, Australian •crack pilot, American crack machine. He has slated, more than once that he would have,preferred to fly an English machine but from' his knowledge of aviation and machines he turned from the British aeroplanes available to'the American Lockheed. He believes'that three days will be sufficient for the effort. Wiley Post, about whose participation there still appears. to bo some doubt,, has adopted the battle cry of "To .Australia in two days at 300 miles per hour." It'is a fine slogan. Colonel J. C. Fitzmaurice, who' also flies high in his anticipations, expects that the race will bo over in two and a half days; Fokker, the designer of fighting and post-war commercial machines,- is not -particularly keen about the race, considering it too risky,.but he does place the racing time high in distance records, 50 hours, possibly 60. . !t. ■ Campbell . Jones,', .an . English authority, thinks that the race will extend over f.our, days, for such fogs may be expected over the stage between Alleppb and Allahabad as will substantially, reduce speed. . .

Tlie Dutch" pilot's are not'saying very much, for .world ' publication, but at th'e'beginning'of this year'two K.L'.M. pilots roared over the 9000 miles from Amsterdam, to Batavia in a mail-laden Panderjager in 46-hours' flying time. London to Mslbourne is 11,300-odd miles.' This Dutch flight gives as good a basis: ns any for guesswork (called estimating when the public is asked-to pay- an entrance foe and express an opinion) as to the racing time from London, to Melbourne, but the Pander is not nearly so fast a machine as half a dozen of the American and Continental entries, nor so fast as it is hoped the All-Australian machine, illustrated iv yesterday's "Post," will be. The Dutch record, too, suggests that British machines are facing the stillest opposition. The mystery Comet is the British, hope. ' ,