STRATOSPHERE BOMBING

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 76, 4 August 1941, Page 6

STRATOSPHERE BOMBING

ASPIRATIONS OF R.A.F. Loudon, Aug. 1! Doctors, aircraft designers and some of the fittest men in the world are combining at a secret air station in an effort to solve the problems ol ! stratosphere bombing, says the aero-j nautical correspondent of the "Sunday Express.” The airmen are flying experimental ’ • stratosphere planes, and they spend a ; 1 large part of their lives in a weird, ; fantastic world 10 miles above the ; earth, where the sun looks like the i moon and the sky deepens from purple , to black. If an airman tried to bale out in the . stratosphere he would explode. His ( aircraft would disintegrate if a door t were opened, because the atmospheric pressure within would suddenly change. Thus there are three main problems: First, to evolve a pressure cabin which would not explode if it were hit by a bullet: secondly. to arm the stratosphere planes with guns which must penetrate the pressure cabin tube fired by remote control: and thirdly, to make it possible for the crew to ; bale out. , It is known that the enemy is muk- ; t ing similar tests, but it is confidently r believed that the British experiments ; ' are ahead. —U.P.A. ARK ROYAL DAMAGED? 1 Rome, Aug. 2. The radio claims that the aircraftcarrier Ark Royal was among the Bri- , C tish warships which were damaged b when 416 Italian planes attacked a c British convoy in the Mediterranean c recently.—U.P.A. t