BENEATH THE WINDSOCK

Evening Star, Issue 21819, 7 September 1934, Page 3

BENEATH THE WINDSOCK

[By Gypsy Moth.] PILOTS AND PLANES. During the past week the instructor has been kept busy with pupils and with trying out entrants for the scholarship. The week-end was not good from a flying point of view, as a very strong wind from the south-west blew all Sunday, making it quite unsuitable for pupils to practise landing, although cross-country flights could bo carried out. The Wnco made several passenger flights on Sunday, and proved a very stable machine in the high wind. Pilots I. Styche and M. Greenslade left for Timaru on Saturday, and returned to the Taieri on Sunday, landing at Waimato both on the outward and return trips. They reported a good trip. Visibility was good, with bumpy conditions in places. Mr A. H. Allen, who retired from the presidency of the Aero Club last year, and has since been on a trip to England, visited the aerodrome during the week-end. Ho still shows keen interest in aviation matters, and while in England visited several aircraft factories, including the De Haviland works, from whom he purchased a Gipsy engine on behalf of the Aero Club. Summer flying has now commenced, and the instructor lias been out on several mornings giving dual instruction before breakfast. At the end of the month pupils will be able to get in some practice in the evenings. ■lf the dry weather continues the Balclutha ground should be suitable for training at the week-end. For the past few weeks this ground has been too boggy for continued landings. Last week two club members sat an examination for entrance to the Royal New Zealand Air Force, and are now awaiting the result. If they arc successful the club will have four members in the territorial air force. ZK-ACI has now been fitted with the intermediate type of low-pressure wheels, bringing this machine in line with the other Moths. : MODERN DEVELOPMENT. An American pilot visiting New Zealand says there is a great boom in the aircraft industry in the United States, and practically all plants are working to capacity; many of the larger firms are working three shifts a day. In England aircraft designing and construction are making rapid strides, high cruising speeds are being attained with low landing speeds. Several new types of engine have lately been introduced. The Bristol “ Perseus " is a ninecylinder radial engine, with sleeve valves, and develops 500 _ h.p. The Napier Dagger develops 670 h.p., and is an air-cooled engine with twentyfour cylinders arranged like a letter “ H.” The whole engine presents a very small frontal area. _ The new Rolls-Royce “ Goshawk ” is a steamcooled engine, and develops 600 h.p. The Bristol “Phoenix” is a heavy-oil engine, with compression ignition. This engine has been giving wonderful results, and ..recently -established the world’s altitude record for heavy-oil engines, of 27,460 ft. FIRST NIGHT FLIGHT. Ten minutes in the air one night recently made flying history in Wellington (states a recent issue of ‘Wings’). Those ten minutes established Miss Marie Power-Collins as New Zealand’s first club-trained woman pilot to take control of an aeroplane in night flying. Miss Power-Collins had Squadronleader Stedman in the front seat on this occasion, but she is keen to do night solo, and no doubt the very near future will see her hopes fulfilled. Miss Power-Collins is learning night flying as part of the course for her “R ” license. She had already spent much time with Flight-lieutenant Bolt and Mr A. J. Dingle obtaining constructional and rigging experience, and in the air is halfway to the minimum required for her' commercial license. During July Miss Power-Collins underwent a minor operation for antrium' trouble. After some aerobatics, during which she descended from 4,000 to 1,000 feet in three or four minutes, she found that the drum of her right ear had collapsed, but that all is now well, and she is now again in the air and fit as a fiddle. THE DE HAVILLAND COMET. Last January the De Havilland Aircraft Company announced that it would manufactnre i a limited number of longdistance racing aircraft designed and built especially to conform to the conditions and regulations of the forthcoming Macßobertson International Air Race. ■ The machine will be known as the Comet type (states ‘ Shell Aviation News’), and the following is the first information to be released regarding it. Twin-engined low-wing cantilever monoplane. Accommodation is provided for two pilots seated in tandem behind the mam planes. The wings, following recent De Havilland practice, have a pronounced taper, and the overall dimensions of the aircraft are quite small. Its span is forty-four feet and length only twenty-nine feet. Power is provided by two special unsupercharged racing Gipsy-six engines developing 230 horse-power. They will probably be fitted with variable-pitch propellers adjustable on tho ground or in flight so that the maximum power of the engines can be" used for taking off or for cruising. The engines are mounted on the planes, one on each side of the fuselage, and two independent wheels with shock absorbers located immediately below them retract in flight into the fairings at the rear of the engines, thereby reducing the head resistance of the aircraft to a minimum. > AIRPORTS FOR LONDON. It will seem odd to the taxpayer that Ooydon, on which _ the Government must have spent quite a third of a million sterling during the past fourteen years, is now found to be less usable than other London aerodromes

on account of fog. For every 100 occasions on which it is foggy at Croydon, there are only 75 such days at Heston, 65 at Gatwick, and 35 at Gravesend (states ‘ Airways and Airports ’). Quito probably there are other sites as free from fog as Gravesend which are nearer to London, but even though this may not be the case, it is obvious that Croydon was chosen too hurriedly to serve as the international airport for the metropolis. The taxpayer foots the bill for con tinual additions and improvements tr, an aerodrome, whose very surface c a bad one, not even complying with Air Ministry requirements as to gradient. There is little possibility of an improvement in road communication with Croydon, which must remain a fast half-hour’s drive from the West End. The solution to the problem of getting to the airport from the centre of any city lies in one of two direc-. tions—either by building a special tube railway to connect the two, or by constructing an “ Autogirodrome ” in the centre of the city, for the use of “ windmill ” taxis serving as ferries to the airport situated outside the populated area.