The Aviation World

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20880, 23 May 1931, Page 17

The Aviation World

INDIAN AIR MAILS. / / fleet of new machines. The announcement that the Indian Gov ernment lias ordered a fleet of monoplane air-liners for the operation of internal airways in India/mArks a new and important ttago in the development of Empire air communications. For the fust time the principle of unified control, fulfilled in the monopoly operation by Imperial .Airways of the existing lines radiating from London to the East, is broken. The experiment is interesting and only the future can show whether the Indian Government is right of wrong in refusing to budge from insistence that internal airways in the territory over which it rules puist be State-controlled. From the end of this year, when the .present agreement chartering Imperial .Airways aeroplanes for tho continuation of the air mail from Karachi to Delhi is due to expire, the y British company will be faced with a gap, between Calcutta and Karachi, in tho service to Australia. Undoubtedly, the Indian Government will permit Imperial Airways craft to carry mails and passengers embarked outsido India to destinations beyond India, as /Dutch and French machines do to-day, but they will not countenance the carriage of internal traffic along the main routes by any aeroplanes except their own. Preparing the Fleet. Tho alternative is for the Indian aeroplanes to for the transport of tho mails from Karachi to Calcutta. Hero difficulties might arise from differences of size and loading of the machines employed. For/ oxample, should one of the new giant four-engined Handley-Page biplanes reach Karachi from the west with 60001b. or more o2 load cn board, several smaller planes might be required to take the load across India without delay. v / Tho machines ordered by the Indian . Government are three-engined "Avro Ten" high-wing monoplanes, a singlo pair of wings being located above tho fuselage, with space in the cabin for eight passengers, and served by a crew of two or three men. They cruise at 100 miles an hour and are designed to operate in India with sufficient fuel on board for non-stop flights of 800 miles, a range necessary because some of the stages contemplated / in the regular operation of airways in India are more than 600 miles long. Each machine is powered with three 230 h.p. Armstrong-Siddeley "Lynx" air-cooled engines. Work on the'planes intended for India has already begun. When flying trials are completed the fleet will be delivered by air, flying in formation from England to India. The first internal airways are likely to be inaugurated at the beginning of next year. PROGRESS IN GLIDING. It was decided recently at a well-at-tended meeting of the Dannevirke Gliding Club, at which representatives of the I'almerston North Gliding Club were also present, to take steps to form a New Zealand Gliding Association. The following were elected a provisional committee to further the proposal:—Dr. C. S. Williams, president of Dannevirke Gliding Club; Major A. R. Claridge and Mr. E. C. Deannan, of Dannevirke; and Major Hardio and Mr. C. J. Bosworth, of Palmerston North; with power to add. The work of the committee is to get in touch with all the New Zealand clubs, ascertain their views on the proposal, then convene a general conference to form the association. Speaking at the meeting, Flying-Officer R. E. Matheson said New Zealand was far behind any other country in the British Empire in air-mindednees, in which he included the art of gliding, though the country was well adapted for it. Gliding had made rapid progress in Europe, particularly in Germany, where gliding pilots were put through very severe tests to compensate for the restrictions imposed in power-flying under the I Treaty of Versailles. Trained pilots there soared to remarkable heights and remained in the air for some time, thus enabling meteorological investigations to be undertaken. Gliding, he claimed, was a good thing for young people, as it en- . couraged the air sense and prepared people for becoming power pilots. A CONVINCING TEST. Tests of a severity seldom imposed on any power plant, and, it is claimed, never before on an air-cooled aero engine, were recently passed, successfully by several types of the Bristol Jupiter radial engines, each lof which develops about. 500 h.p. For one hundred hours these motors were run at full throttle, instead of the 90 per cent, throttle opening required by tho British official regulations for a test of this duration. In that time each engine made more than 12 million revolutions, /yet when they were stripped at the end of tho run the motors wero found to be in splendid condition and to show very littlo wear. Even the man without special knowledge of aero power units can visualise the magnitude of this feat, proof positive of the degree of confidence which the aircraft operator may repose in his British aeroplane engines. The / Bristol company claim, indeed, that the results of this series of tests havo never been equalled in any country. OUT OF THE BLUE. It is reported from Washington that tho bill providing for the night-lighted air routes of the United States will sanction an expenditure of £2,000,000 a year. I It is stated that the French team which has gone into training for tlie Sehnoidev contest consists of Commander Aniaurich, of the Xavy, Captain Marly, Captain Vernold, Lieutenant Retourna, SergeantMajor Dumas, Sergeant Baillet, Sergeant Goussin and Sergeant Labrevcux. Tho first stages of training will bo carried out or! Bernard monoplanes, with IlispanoSuiza engines, and there are also, it is stated, two Nicuport-Delage seaplanes at Bene. The racing seaplanes are not yet I ready ; Herr Ernst Udet, the well-known German airman, figured in a curious adventure recently on the Sercngetti Plains, where he was taking part in the making of a German film. Two aeroplanes set out over little-known country to photograph rhinoceros. One machine was forced clown and turned turtle, dragging its two occupants 50 yards. Herr Udet, in the second machine, landed to give help; simultaneously a rhinriceros appeared and charged him. Before he was able to go to his companions he had to shoot the rhinoceros at five yard's range. The animal thereupon disappeared into the bush, enabling Herr Udet to transport his companions one at a time to the camp.