AVIATION.

Grey River Argus, 11 December 1928, Page 5

AVIATION.

ENORMOUS ALBATROSS’

Strikes Plane’s Propeller. ANTARCTIC EXPLORER’S NARROW ESCAPE. Aus. and N.Z. Assn and Sun Cable.) LONDON, December 9, Wilkins, in a wireless message from Deception Island, says that he made a flight to ascertain whether ice would form on the machine, also to examine the island for landing fields. The temperature was two degrees below zero, but no ice formed on the machine. No suitable field for skis was found. During the interval snowstorms flew over Snow Island. When alighting an enormous albatross smashed into the butt of the propellor. The bird had a wing-spread of ten feet. If it had struck the propeller’s tips or pilot’s windshield, disaster would have been likely. Near the island’s edges were crevasses many hundred of yards long, wide enough to engulf the plane. They must examine the island on foot before using it as a base. SCHNEIDER CUP RACE. LONDON. December 9. After inspection of several alternative venues, the Aero Club has decid ed to hold the 1929 Schneider Cup race nt the Solent. The opinion is that it alone combines a stretch of smooth water, suitable for the three hundred miles an hour machines to alight upon, with the necessary shed and slipway accommodation. It is expected that Britain. France, Italy, America and Germany will compete. Special racing seaplanes, estimated to attain three hundred miles an hour, are being constructed in in order to defend the trophy.