AIR-SHIP RACE.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue 7540, 15 August 1902, Page 4

AIR-SHIP RACE.

Tbe news that Santos-Dumont and Sir Henry Maxim intend competing in the great air-ship race, which is to be one of the features of tbe World's Fair at St. Louis, will iucrease the popular interest in tbe unique competition. For SantosDumont, in spite of the many mishaps which have beset him since he first attempted aeronautics, ha 3 certainly gone further than any other man towards achieving complete sucoesa with a an airship, while Mazim, who not long ago offered to give £50,000 for a flying-machine that would travel at a satisfactory speed to make it suitable for military purposes, will have a good opportunity of proving his theory that the mastery of the air will be obtained by a machine constructed on the kite, or aeroplane principle, and not by a balloon. Santos-Dumont travelled to St. Louis in April last on purpose to be present at the meeting of aeronauts, engineers, Exhibition officials, and advisory experts, at which the arrangements were made for the air-sbip race. The Exhibition authorities ho-ve taken up the matter very seriously. As one of the directors said, " We do not wish to have a hippodrome or a circus in this contest. Our objeot is distinctly and primarily to advance the cause of science by doing what we can to solve the problem of corial navigation, which has been mooted for centuries, and to whioh no solution hae been found." With this object in view, the directors voted £40,000 .for the purposes of the race, of whioh L 20.000 was set apart as the great prize for the contest, and £10,000 for subsidiary prizes. Those number ten or twelve, each contingent upon the performance of some accomplish} ment on the part of air vehicle, such as ability to move upward, downward, backward, at an angle, or in a circle. The tentative rules and regulations drawn up by the conference are to be- considered and reconsidered by various sub-commit-tees, and will probably, before final acceptance, be submitted to tbe approval of renewned aeronauts. SantosDumont, it may be mentioned took part in the work of deciding upon the route of the race. "I expect," he Hid, en leaving St. Louis, " that at least 150 airships will be entered when the rules and conditions of the contest are made known. I predict that the tournament will be oqs of the grandest sights a human eye has ever beheld, and I confidently expeot that