AERIAL ROBOT PILOT

Greymouth Evening Star, 19 November 1934, Page 5

AERIAL ROBOT PILOT

GERMANY’S LATEST MARVEL

“FINEST FOG-BEATER" [BY CABLE —PRESS ASSN. —COPYRIGHT.] (Recd. November 19, 10.30 a.m.) LONDON, November 18. The “Dispatch” says: A German inventor has produced a new robot pilot, with a mechanical brain enabling an aeroplane to rise to a required height and fly the required course and speed, irrespective of the human pilot, who takes off in the machine, then sits back.

The robot pilot is also equipped with several wireless systems, two of which assist the landing. One shows on the dash board a miniature beacon corresponding with the centre of the aerodrome, which moves across the dial if the plane deviates. The other sounds a note which varies if the plane is off the course. These unprecedented combinations make it the finest fog beater in the history of aviation. British Air Ministry, and Imperial Airways experts have flown in the plane, and were greatly impressed. The “Dispatch” says: A special investigator sent to Germany on behalf of British secret interests reported that Germany is capable of putting 2,500 planes in the air within an hour, if war broke out. The investigator, disguised as a workman, visited important motor works in Bavaria, and found a large part of the factories were guarded. Shifts were working day and night, building planes. Works near Kiel, are turning out thousands of mines and torpedoes weekly.

S. AFRICA TO AUSTRALIA. (Recd. November 10, 10 a.m.) PRETORIA, November 18. The first air mail to Australia leaves Cape Town on December 4. Letters forwarded by it will reach the destination in time for Christmas. In addition, correspondence for New Zealand, Tasmania, Fiji, Papua, Samoa and other islands of the Western Pacific will be considerably expedited by the new service. The mails will be conveyed by a weekly Imperial Airways service as far as Cairo, to connect with the London-Australia service. RACE PROTEST MELBOURNE, November 19. The Stodarts’ air race protest was dismissed. KINGSFORD SMITH SAN FRANCISO, November 17. Sir Charles Kingsford Smith was today harassed here by autograph -hunters and multitudes of admirers. Since he landed in California a fortnight ago, he has locked himself in a hotel suite, and sent out word by his manager, Mr. H. S. W. Stannage, that his nerves are ragged and that he is determined to get some rest. “Sir Charles must have rest and quiet. If need be. I’ll take him away to some remote spot in the hills. He has been pestered no end, and he’s tired of it all,’’ Mr. Stannage said. CALIFORNIAN TRAGEDY LOS ANGELES, November 17. The President and three employees of the. Pacific Airmotive Corporation were killed in a biplane in which they were en route to inspect the wreckage of an air mail plane which crashed in mountains near here.

TASMAN FLIGHT. SYDNEY, November 18. Whitehead and Nicholl are not likely to leave for New Zealand before Monday, owing to a gale now raging on the Tasman Sea, while the weather along the coast of New South Wales is typical of midwinter. There have been violent rain squalls for the last twenty hours, and there is no sign of their abating. Whitehead has received a cablegram from his mother in New Zealand wishing them luck. Many similar messages have been received from the Dominion. EARLY REGULAR SERVICE. WELLINGTON, November 17. Mr L. Swan, Secretary of the Auckland Aero Club, arrived by the Maunganui. He predicted a regular air service across Tasman Sea in the near future, an essential requirement, apart from suitable planes, being a perfect system of directional radio.

PANGBORN AND TURNER. AUCKLAND, November 17. Captain Roscoe Turner, Mr Clyde Pangborn and Mr R. Nichols, who won the second prize in the speed section of the Centenary Air Race, are returning to the United States on the Mariposa with their Boeing monoplane. Captain Turner said the race was splendidly organised and the time put up by Scott and Black was marvellous and all the credit was due to them. The reception that he and the other airmen got was the finest in the world, he remarked. He was certain that none of the competitors was after money. His own expenses, without the cost of the plane, was 25,000 dollars.

Turner expressed great regret at the disaster at Longreach. He said there were four main things which might cause such crashes. (1) An error of judgment by the pilot near the ground; (2) improper inspection of the plane before the flight; (3) some form of structural failure: (4) the weather. In America they found the most important work in aviation was the proper servicing of planes. He said there was no reason why a regular transTasman air service should not come within a few years. With proper ground organisation and equipment the service would be perfectly safe.

Clyde Pangborn said hhis projected round-the-world flight mentioned in the cables would start towards the end of July. The schedule time was four days live hours, not four days eight hours, as cabled. The flight would be a non-stop one, his scheme being to refuel in the air at Moscow and Chita, Siberia. The total distance would be 16,000 miles. Fraulein Thea Rasche, the young German journalist and aviatrix, who flew as a passenger in the Dutch plane, is also on the Mariposa. Sho said that all the passengers on t’’c> plane had a fc-eiing of absolute safety throughout. She said she took I over the controls between Darwin and

Cloncurry, Parmentier and Moll being very tired. She flew it for four hours to give them a chance to sleep. HEWETT’S MACHINE PALMERSTON N„ November 17. Taking off at 10 a.m., the . transTasman biplane, Tainui, piloted by Squadron-Leader Hewett, rose into the air beautifully, circled the city in farewell. and headed for Auckland followed t?'o other machine-. Rc?'V'.'r. te the Tainui were completed last evening.