Grey River Argus and Blackball News SATURDAY, MAY 30, 1914.

Grey River Argus, 30 May 1914, Page 4

Grey River Argus and Blackball News

SATURDAY, MAY 30, 1914.

Dehverod every - wormag xn Greyinoutli. Kumara, Hufatika, ju u d*ou. Wailßoud, r a ylor, yUle, Brunnerton, StiUwaser. Ngaiiera. Blaokball. v2}2£ £"-**!, Ah £ ura . IJtumatua, Warata, Eeaftou, Cronodun, Bonauga, Uuuoliie, CoD4eu isaxtui v, Hokiri, Patara, jtum.ata, Aruwfca 5««n f T °t na> fiur T v « <JLe *ima, aofctouauu' 1 roeras, I bourne, Jaoksons «nu Jtn»:

In the recent progress of aeronautics, years might .well be counted as decades. If we turn the pages "we read that the first successful man flight in a heavier-than-air machine, was made by the Wright Brothers on December 17, ' igo3, a little more than eleven years ago, and that - it took two years to obtain anything like assured control over their appar- 1 atus. We may read further of the wonderful flight of 720- feet made by Santos Dumont on November 13, igo6, and a little farther oof we read that' "bewildering advance in aviation took v place in 1908 and ' 1909." . Since then there has fegen a! ateadjr »ad

rapid gain, not only in records of height, distance and "duration, but in general control. The public having accepted aviation as a: fact, it has tak : en':-less : interest in- details of -..-prow gress than it did at the beginning. It requiries now something as atonishing- as the/ stabilizer .to *gain^ and to hold popular attention for' any length of time. ■ An international aeronautical congress is to be held at the Pan ama Exposition in 1915. In the mean time there ds ; every, likelihood of deVelopments in aeronautics that will have the effect of obscuring .achievements up to this time. Where acTVance is made by the day, almost by the hour, the progress of a year to one who looks backward is amazing. The San Francisco Congress should, and "it undoubtedly* will, mark an epoch in aviation. One of the accom plishments that it may register will probably be the. perfecting of the stabilizer so 'that ordinary care and skill will make, the aeroplane a vehicle for the uses of -the ordinary man. This will count' for' more in the sum of hu man achievement than all the phenomenal ascents and flights, for it will' mean eventually the opening- ©t £<?. wide ' world to the multitudes. Those ' responsible for the -great Rus sian Sikorsky aeroplane, have been successful in constructing this mammoth heavier-than-air machine in secret. Little was known to the' general* public of this interesting under taking' until the machine was practically ready for flight. Those who are at all familiar with aeroplanes and their management prefer to maintain silence, when questioned as to the wi's dom of constructing a machine of such enormous proportions, until more exhaustive experiments and , trial s r have been carried out. In the .mean time, the Imperial ' Aero Club of Germany' discussed at a recent meeting^ the question of (the trans-Atlantic flight by means of such an aeroplane From the reports of the discussion i| appears that not a few were in favour l of using for the purpose a large machine similar to the* Russian design. Whether a flight across the Atlantic is successfully carried out in the immediate future or not, the construction of the Sikorsky aeroplane affords yet another reminder of the extraordinary development in construction and the undoubted influence their use by the military forces of the world must have, in causing those anxious to go to war at least to hesitate. One ot the most vi*a! drawbacks to the ordinary aeroplane is the impossibil ity of making engine adjustments whilst in. flight. ! .On a long journey it would be essential to have a least one spare engine from which sufficient " power could fbe bbtained to render the aeroplane navigable while any necessary adjustments to thjj other engine were being made. From all accounts the Russian aeroplane fulfils these requirements^ for at was explained that, during the trial trip, the mechanic walked out to one of the engines which had stopped, . and was able to make certain necessary adjustments to the carburetter. The stories written by Jules Verne, and read wrth so much interest by the schoolboys of a ,few years ago, -we no longer classed among the impossible schemes of a vivid imagination. At " present the question of a trans- ( Atlantic flight is under discussion and who Tcnows but that this aerial tripwill be'iaccomplished this year? So rapid has progress been during recent years, especially in everything relating .to the navigation of the air, that it is safe to say that the public will -take the announcement that the Atlantic has been crossed by a flying machine with little more surprise than the celebrated crossing of the Channel by M. Bleriot, on July 25, igog.