BENEATH THE WINDSOCK

Evening Star, Issue 21623, 19 January 1934, Page 2

BENEATH THE WINDSOCK

[By Gypsy Moth.] STRANGE AIR CARGO. Air transport history is filled with remarkable stories of emergencies met by the speed of the aeroplane, but few are ns extraordinary as that surrounding the transport of malaria germs over the Perth-Adelnide service, operated by Western Australian Airways. The Vacuum Oil Company states that a Perth doctor recently inquired whether the-service could carry a flash from Melbourne fast enough to reach Perth within fifty hours of leaving, and when told that it could be done, explained the position. Malaria germs were used in the treatment of brain diseases, he said, being injected into the patient and allowed to work for a week or two before being removed, but not before a blood sample containing the living malarial strain had been taken for the treatment of other patients., , There were, however, no living malarial strains available in Perth or in South Australia, nor were there enough patients for the strain to be kept alive by repeated transfers, in Melbourne there were sufficient patients available to enable strains to be kept alive for long periods, and so the malaria germs required for Perth must come from Melbourne. The difficulty in earlier years arose over transport, as the germs in many cases lived only for fifty hours, and it was impossible to transport patients injected with it owing to the expense, as their condition necessitated travelling with escorts. The problem having been solved by the existence of the air service, a sample of blood is to be taken from a patient in Melbourne an hour before the train leaves for Adelaide and will be handed to the pilot of the mail aeroplane leaving Parafield on the following morning in a specially packed thermos flask. On the Sunday afternoon it will be delivered to the Perth medical authorities, and immediately used in an effort to cure a patient under treatment.

A NEW TRAINING MACHINE. The S.V. 5 is a new training machine designed for the Belgian army and fitted with a 340 horse-power air-cooled Siddelev “Serval” engine. Its production affords outstanding proof of the vitality and enterprise of its makers for barely five months elapsed from the time when the drawing office commenced the design to tlve moment when the aircraft took the air. The machine is of metal and wood construction, the principal joints of the fuselage being rustless steel, while other metal parts are protected by an electrolytic deposit. The performance figures are secret for the present, but the approximate data are as follows:—Maximum speed, 156169 m.p.h. (250 to 270 km. per hour) ; landing speed, 50 m.p.h. (80 km. per hour): ceiling, 21,000 ft (7,500 metres). AIR FORCE REFRESHER COURSES. Preparations are in train at Wigram aerodrome for the annual refresher courses undertaken by the various squadrons of the New Zealand Air Force under the supervision ol officers of the Permanent Staff. Four courses will be held within the next three months, one for each squadron, and each lasting ten days. The No. 4 (army co-operation) Squadron, most of tlve officers of which come from Southland and Otago, will go into training on January 30, and will be followed by the No. 2 (bombing) Squadron, recruited from the Wellington district. The No. 3 (bombing) Squadron, including Canterbury officers, and the No. 1 (army co-operation Squadron, mainly composed of Auckland men, will begin their courses later. FAST AIR MAIL FLIGHTS. A Dutch pilot has taken a load of mail from Amsterdam to Batavia, and brought another load back to Amsterdam, 0 in less than eight days (states the Christchurch ‘Press’). The British air service, which will this year be extended to Australia, does not yet reach as far as Batavia, but stops at Singapore, 600 miles closer to Europe. And for the. single journey the British mail aeroplanes take ten days—covering the total distance at about two-fifths of the speed of the Dutch aeroplane. The British Post Office would no doubt say in its defence that the Dutch flight jvns a “ stunt.” So it was, and with one crew taking one aeroplane the whole way it must have had in it an element of risk that does not enter the staid progress of the Imperial Airwavs machines. That risk, however, could easilv he removed by an improvement ‘in the organisation on the route, and by adopting the British practice of sending each crew and aeroplane over only one stage of the journey, at the end of which another takes over the cargo. ' A four-day service to Batavia, which means a seven-day service to Sydney, is as great an advance on existing transport as fast liners are on windjammers, and that advance, for the sake of the development of Empire commerce, ns well as for the sake of British prestige—for the Dutch pilot must have smiled when he passed a British aeroplane going out and mot it, still dawdling Singapore-wards, on his wav homo —is worth much more than the" extra organisation and money it would cost.