INTO THE AIR.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 9 July 1925, Page 8

INTO THE AIR.

ROCKETS TO FLY TWENTY . Jk MILE'S HIGH. Huge rockets, costing £lO9 each, and capable of being fired 20 or 130 miles into the air. are to be used to fathom some of the secrets ot the' upper atmosphere, says the Daily Chronicle. The experiment savours of the Jules Verne method of reaching the moon. It has been .suggested by Mr. ,7. W. Whipple, of the Meteorological Office, and may be 'brought before the notice of the Oommks.sioni of the International Meteorological Committee when it meets in London.

“At the present time,” said Air. Whipple, “the only way off making expet iment.s in the upper air is by sending up recording instruments on crewless balloons which descend to earth again. The greatest height attained in this way is 1 21 miles. .It ns impossible to get beyond that altitude, as the balloons burst in the rarified air. So if we are to get information from greater heights other methods must be used. “In the past a. good deal of data has been obtained by studying the explosions of meteors. A meteor weighing about 101 b exploding 20 miles above the eart-li produces a concussion that can be heard down here. My idea is to substitue rockets for meteors. “The type of rocket I have in, mind is something after the style PVofessor Goddard, of the United States, projects firing at the moon. It- would be almost as large as st torpedo and propelled by the. firing of a succession of charges'of some smokeless explosive. Wo know that sound travels roughly at a. speed of about- 1020 feet per second. but the rate is faster in. warm air, and from observations made over a number of rocket experiments we could tell the temperature of the air 20 or .‘3O miles over our heads.”