AVIATION

Evening Star, Issue 18053, 22 August 1922, Page 4

AVIATION

MOTORLESS AEROPLANE. GERMAN STUDENTS' SUCCESSES. Press .Association —By Telegraph—Copyright. BERLIN, August 20. Martens, a Hanoverian engineering student, has flown for sixty-six minutes at a height of 300 feet, with a motorless aeroplane. Ho flew ten kilometres in a direct lino in tw.enty-three minutes. Henzen, a fellow student, using the same aeroplane, broke Martens’s record for continuou’s flying by 130 seconds (i.e., 58mm lOsec). —A. and N.Z. Cable. [Early in this month cngmelees aeroplanes "were submitted to the Motorless Aviation Congress at Clermont, in France, but the tests then made did not give a flight duration of more than two minutes, the result being admittedly poorer than those of previous German, .experiments. The aim is to utilise the internal force of the wind, as is done in the natural flight of buds.] BERLIN, August 21. (Received August 22, at 11.30 a.mi) Hentzem’s glider weighs 1501 b, and has a wind surface of 200 square feet. A. and N.Z. Cable. _________ AMERICAN’S CLAIM. WASHINGTON, August 21. (Received August 22, at 10.45 a.m.) Mr Glenn 11. Curtis has announced that he has completed a motorless aeroplane which, if the tests are successful, will bo capable of rising from and alighting on the water.—A. and N.Z. Cable. MB HANDLEY PAGE EXPLAINS WHY GERMANS USE GLIDERS, LONDON, August 21. (Received August 22, at 11.30 a.m.) Tho Handley Pago Company has a representative watching tho motorless aeroplane tests at Washerknppe, a hill 3,000 ft high, near Fulda, Germany', where Hcntzem flew for 7,2105ec. . Mr Frederick Handley Page, interviewed, ** The object of the motorless planes is to, discover tho secret of bird flight. Washerknppe is treeless, and when the wind blows against it there is a strong upward current, making soaimg possible. After the machine is thrown into tho air by an_ elastic catapult it rises against the wind like a bird. _ “As the' Peace Treaty restricts Germany’s construction in other aircraft, they have turned their attention to these gliders, with great success. Gliders fly so slowly that it is possible for a pedestrian to'keep up with a machine and converse with the pilot.”—A. and N.Z. Cable. ROUND THE WORLD FLIGHT. SEAPLANE MISSING. OVER BAY OF BENGAL.

DELHI, August 21. Malins and Macmillan, in a seaplane, set off from Calcutta on Saturday morning for Akyab, in Burma—a four hours’ journey. Since then no news has been received from them. Wireless messages are being broadcasted to all vessels. The worst is feared, and it, is suggested that a special vessel should ho despatched to search. —A. and N.Z. Cable. [Malins and Macmillan were continuing Major Blake’s round the world flight while their chief is recovering from his operation. The pair reached Calcutta in the DH9 three-sea ter, Majoiy Blake crossing India by train. According to plan, a change of machine was made at Calcutta to a Fairey seaplane, fitted with a. 230 h.p. Rolls-Royce engine, in view of the flights over the ocean involved by tho itinerary between Calcutta and Vancouver, via Burma. Cochin-China, Japan, the Aleutian Islands, and Alaska. A message sent from India on Saturday dated that the seaplane refused to rise and showed a pronounced list, but was being overhauled. Mr Malins is in charge of tho photographic and kinomatograpbic work, replacing Colonel Broom at Pisa, that gentleman proceeding to Alaska to lay petrol and provision dumps in advance. Captain Macmillan has been with Major Blake since the start from London on May 24. The journey from Calcutta to Akyab involves crossing the head of the Bay of Bengal, the distance being about 320 miles.] INDIA’S AIR DEFENCES. VICE-MARSHAKS INSPECTION. DELHI, August 21. (Received August 22, at 11.5 a.m.) Air Vice-Marshal Sir Geoffrey Salmond, who has been tonring the frontier, states that India is woefully behind the times as regards her Air Force’s equipment; but-she is improving, and a few months will see her with seventy active machines. - Ho is of opinion that ICO active machines, with reserves, will meet the requirements of her frontier. Tho bomb supply ample. Further, he said that an efficient Air Force on tho frontier would bo able to cope with recalcitrant tribes more effectively and economically than military forces had done in the last seventy years. Sir G. Salmond leaves for Mesopotamia at the beginning of September to take command of all the forces.