AVIATION

Greymouth Evening Star, 22 June 1923, Page 5

AVIATION

.— RAREFIED AIR TEST. (Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.) LONDON, Juno 2J. Three well-known aviators underwent a curious experience, at Paris to test the effect of rarefied air on persons climbing Mount Everest and other high mountains. They submitted to being enclosed in a cylinder, fifteen feet by nine, in which the air was gradually rarefied, wnile doctors watched the effects upon the inmates through windows in the cylinder, until the conditions reached the. equivalent of an altitude of 27,898 feet.. The pilots were dressed in skins, like the ah Whan flip 171 fl 1C fl. t 01* TO*

Eskimos. vvneii uie. ihu.iucilul it gistered 15,000 feet, their noses reddened, and they stamped their feet to get warmth. The doctors judged that it was undesirable to allow the indicator to go beyond 27,898 feet, as their earlier experiments had showed that men lost consciousness at a height of 26,000 feet. The whole te.st occupied 35 minutes. BRITAIN TO GERMANY. LONDON, June 20. Barnard Instone, air pilot, Hew from Croydon to Cologne and back the same day, the actual flying time being 392 minutes. Ho took live passengers going, and six returning. NORTH POLE ATTEMPTS. PARIS, June 21. Lieutenant Baker will leave I 1 rance in the summer of 1924 to establish hcadquarj iL C<. -J 4 .Ju.iwnn from vchiuh 11(*

tors north of Spitzbergen, from wmen nc will attempt to fly to the North Bole. Ho believes that he can cover the ictuin flight, 1437 miles, in 24 hours. Four biplanes will be taken, two for flight, and two to bo ready at the base to assist the fliers if summoned. All will be equipped with wireless. CHRISTIAN TAi, June 21. “Aftenpost” states that Amundsen is returning by the schooner Holmes, and does not intend to seek the schooner Maud.