AERIAL TRAGEDIES

Greymouth Evening Star, 25 June 1923, Page 2

AERIAL TRAGEDIES

FATALITY DURING RACE. La ; (Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.) LONDON, June 24. The first air race this year was marred" by a serious accident. Lhe Tcic© Wclfl & Point-to-Point Handicap for a challenge cup presented by Lord Edward Grosvenor, over a four hundred mile course, from Lympe, over Croydon to Birmingham, Bristol and back to Croydon and Lympe. The race was limited to British machines not exceeding 150 horsepower. _ Nine started and the winner was Lieutenant Longton, piloting a Sopwith gnu of 110 horsepower. Hi s time was 230 minutes 45 seconds. Hinkler flying a babv avro thirty-five horsepower was third. Major Foot, scratch, flying a Stanley White hundred horsepower monoplane nosedived and clashed in an isolated spot on a country road near Chertsey, on the outward' journey. When found his body was charred and unrecognisable, and the machine burnt. FRENCH EXPERT KILLED. PARIS,' June 24. ( Jean Casale, the well known “ace ’ holding the French height record crashed near Compiegne and was killed. Signor Mercajiti, the Italian Under Secretary of aviation left Turin in an aeroplane which he was piloting himself bound for London. He crashed near Aix La Bains, but was not seriously hurt. NEW WARFARE RULES. WASHINGTON, June 22. The proposed new warfare rules, governing aircraft raids, and the radio in war, drawn up by an International Commission of Jurists at The Hague, as provided by the Washington Arms Conference, have been 'published. Tn recommendations will probably form the basis of a Treaty among the leading Powers. The report condemns airplane attacks, such 'as Germany made on London and Paris, for the purpose of terrorisation. It proposes that those be banned entirely. It is also proposed that vessels and aircraft using the radio on the nigh seas to send military intelligence for the use of a belligerent, thereby commit a hostile act, and may be fired on. Aerial bombardment is legitimate only when directed against military forces, works, factories making munitions, and army supplies. The report deals lengthily with th. control of the radio during wartime. ' MYSTERIOUS' RESEARCHES. LONDON, June 23. The “Daily Chronicle” says ; Amazing storie s are in. circulation regarding secret air researches on which Germany, Russia and England are engaged. It is stated Germany and Russia have laboratories hidden deep in the heart of Russia. Air experts say they would not be surprised at this. The German-Russian quest, which is undoubtedly aimed at solving the great remaining problems of the air, has not yet resulted in a discovery which has practically revolutionised flying. Seekers, who possess money and brains, in the seclusion of isolated laboratories, are aiming principally at the development of an extraordinary new “ray,” which centres upon the annihilation, by science, of the fundamental law of gravity. ' SOVIET PLANS AIR FLEET. London, June 8. A campaign to secure a strong Soviet air fleet continues in Russia. The Petrograd executive committee, according to the “Investia,” has sub* scribed 200,000 gold roubles. The much-advertised “Air Fleet Week,” which opened on May 27, has now been extended by Trotsky to the refrain : “Let us construct a Socialist Air Fleet.” He contributes an article tn the “Aervada, ” referring to the fleet, which he says, “will not only protect our own liberty, but perhaps help other countries to emancipte themselves. Let us construct aeropknes for labourers and for the oppressed. ,Let us make aviation a part of the country’s daily life.”