NEW ZEALAND AIRMAN.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLVI, Issue XLV, 17 June 1911, Page 8

NEW ZEALAND AIRMAN.

VISIT TO HIS HOME. ME. J. J. HAMMOND'S EXPERIENCES ABROAD. PROGRESS OF AVIATION. Mr. J. J. Hammond, a New Zealajider who has the distinction of being a thoroughly qualified aviator, has reached Wellington from Australia, where he has heen giving a number of remarkably successful flying exhibitionsHe has not come to his native country in pursuit of further aviation records, though the Dominion is virgin ground. His object is to have a few weeks' quiet holiday with his wife and to revisit his old home, Feilding. Aviation, exploits lend themselves so well to the journalistic copy-hunter of the older countries that Mr. Hammond's life-story has ,rome ahead of him. highly drawn, and with many vivid .patches. He disclaims anything .mere adrventurous than a thoroughly .good tour of the world, .during which he visited Klond'yke go Id fields, and when in Europe earned a- certificate of competency as an aeroplanist at Rheixns. FLYING. AS A (BUSINESS. "I took up flying as a hobby at first," said Mr. Hammond to a "New Zealand Times" representative, who is a well j buvt man of about 30, quiet in manner, and somewhat diffident about talking of himself. "It .is an expensive pastime—the motors, on my .macbines cost 500 guineas each at the makers in Paris—andi at last I went into it as a business, on purely financial lines. If a few New ZealahcLers can. put vn a guarantee I"ll give flying exhibitions here in the summer, and I hepe to be i able to have an opportunity ci apjrj.saxing in my own country, to show how the new science has progressed." MR, HAMMOND'S FLIGHTS. "My longest flight without a stop is 200 miles. That was once a record, but is now a k-ng way Jbehind. I am not a record-hunter. As for height, my record is 9900 feet, which I reached by taking big spirals for one and a-hatf hours. In Australia I mode nearly a hundred flights, travelling between a thousand and twelve hundred miles." Mr. Hammond used a biplane- for most, <"lf his exhibitions, but he is now a. firm ; ■believer in the monoplane of the Bleriot type. Be does net en'-hure about | things, bat in his comparison of the \.tw 0 classes of machines he oa-me near it when be detailed the monoplane's merits. In both typos the motive power is a Gnome engine with rotating cylinders running at 1250 revolutions a minute. It generates 50-horee-power and weighs only 1651bs fixed complete. A biplane has 474 feet of planet surface, the monoplane between 260 audi 2£o feet, both having the same engine power. "Forty mi.es an hour is the best speed with a biplane," said Mr. Hammond, "but with the monoplane you can travel twice that speed. If vou are expert enough to manage the" monoplane you have a better chaaice of esC3.p:'n, ? an upset in. a flukv wind because when you travel at oightv niiiles an hour ycu are superior to a forty or forty-five mile an hour gale.

DANGER AND "NERVE." "Nerve wantcr? Yes. I suppore so but I never think of danger, and I've been- free from accident so far. never HP-ending a penny on repairs, through that cause. The big trouble- is the vacuum you encounter now and then 1 have dropped like a stcne for two or three hundred feet, but if ~ C u flv high there is less trouble. I -would "prefer to be over 2000 feet above 'windy Wellington' if I fly there. The method of getting out of it for a cross countrv trip would be to rise quite 40C0 feet tS dodge the air currents and- make a eafe crossing of the high hills. I Jonow that there have been many fataJities but if ycu r€ ad to-day about an accident you don't read about the coupile of thousand successful flights that have fatten ,ptace on the same- dav. Aeropdanin" l is not a tenth part so risky as motor" car racing. Accidents with flving machines are due either to .bad. 7 lucJk 'or recklessness. Take Moissant, po:r crumpled up near New Orleans. He was of the redkless circusacrobat type otf performer who took Z°, ?^ y i:Sks > n<x*ey, so his manager to-a me, die-d of heart disease at t? -f' 'J? same <* the JMois- ? ame d<>wn siting miachane, but dead."- ° TJxEMENDOUS BIVALBY. It would be difficult to get the European airman to visit Australia, the tha-t although the rivalry is tremendous r * thet a bl * facto ' iM the Wmbm* F r T & a Over is to be won by airmen on the Continent thas year, inidudin-g £40.C00 offered -by the French Government' for aT?£ IT *™ on S military machines. -As for the vaiue of the aeronlame in war, Mr. Hammond is sure that it will become a big thing for scouting, dispatch running, ajid even transport The Australian- Uovemm,s.nlt injected his machanes with a view to utilising aeroplanes in lts defence forces, and' Mi Hammond will compete for the £ls 000 prize offered for competition towards !- -4u d r. (>f - the yea - b - v the Comnnoavvea.th Government, lor a flight between Sydney} ajid Melbourne. , The JNew. Zealand Government will be 1 approached- by its native-born aviator is prepared' to BSjiat them if a W planes are desired as, part of tiw improved defence system.