MYSTERY AEROPLANE

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIX, Issue 141, 16 May 1929, Page 10

MYSTERY AEROPLANE

CONSTRUCTION IN AMERICA. TRANSPACIFIC FLIGHT PLANS. The interest formerly taken in transAtlantic flying is waning, and the American aviation world is turning to the conquest of the Pacific, where Squadron-Leader Kingsford Smith and the gallant crew of the Southern Cross blazed the way. Shirley Short, one of the most famous of American mail fliers, is planning a non-stop Pacific flight this year in the hope of opening up a new era in trans-Pacific communication. Short and Guiseppe Bellanca, the equally-famous aeroplane designer, who built the aeroplane in which Chamberlin and Levine flew across the Atlantic, are working together on the building of a “mystery ship” which is expected to have a range of 6000 miles. That would make a flight from San Francisco to Sydney possible in one hop. The details cf construction are being kept a profound secret, but it is learned that an important feature is the location of tandem motors in the fuselage instead of an extra motor gondola, which lias hitherto been essential when the motors are placed in tandem fashion. The new departure gives greater power and less head resistance.

The builders plan also to have one tractor propeller and one pusher propeller as well as several new safety features.

Both Short and Bellanca are most reserved concerning the machine; nevertheless they are confident of success. The aeroplane will be ready for testing in a few weeks, and the flight will probably be attempted in August or September. , The success of tlie test flight probably will be followed by an attempt to fly to Australia. The machine, having a greater margin of safety than that used in Kingsford Smith’s epoch-mak-ing feat, will not require the same superlative skill and daring. Mr Bellanca believes that the aeroplane will bring appreciably nearer the day of prncticatde trans-ocean air communication.