AVIATION NOTES

New Zealand Times, Volume L, Issue 11655, 20 October 1923, Page 14

AVIATION NOTES

WONDERFUL PROGRESS NIGHT FLYING AIR MAILS. BRITISH EMPIRE AIRSHIP LINES. A seaplane speed record of 175.3 miles an hour has been made by a Curtis U.S.A. Navy racer .seaplane in a trial flight over Long Island Sound between Execution and Stepping Stone Lights. The seaplane is one of throe which the United States Government entered in the Schneider Cup races off the Isle of Wight, which took place or September 28th last. Tile best previous record' for .seaplanes recognised by the Federated Aoronautique Internationale is that of 146 miles an hour, established by the British super-seaplane which won the Schneider International Cup race at Naples last year. Lieut. Rutledge Irvine, U.S.N., piloted the Curtiss racer during its flight. The course was 4.26 miles, and the ’plane had to contend with a twelve mil© headwind. Under more favourable conditions it is expected to exceed 180 miles an hour. The seaplane has twin pontoons and a 400-hoi\sepo;ver motor. The British seaplane, which won the Schneider trophy lavst year, had a 450 horsepower motor. 10,000 FLYING MACHINE'S WANTED BY U.S.A. The Unite I States, declares Arthur Brisbane in the “New York American,” oould usefully employ in the Post Office Department, in fighting foiost fires, and in endless other ways, ten thousund flying machines. “Those machines would make this nation absolutely safe against attack. An»di they would cost only five times as much as one single ship that Schwab is now building for the Government. That Schwab ship, by tho way, costing forty millions of dollars (<£8,000,000), could and would be sent to the bottom, in case of war, by a couple of tons of TNT, dropped from a twenty thousand. dollar flying ship, managed very likely by two seventeen-year-old boys. This mud be repeated 10,00!) times. Then you'll get the airships.” LONDON -PA RIS. WORLD'S FOREMOST AIRWAY. Since the opening in August, 1919, of Le Bourget (Paris) airport—the hub of the European air transport system—62 per cent, of the departures and arrivals of 'planes, states the “Aeronautical Digest,” have been those of craft operating on the London-Paris route. This indicates the importance of the traffic on this airway in relation to the many other European airlines. From August 25th, 1919, to January Ist, 1923, 7455 voyages of Euglish and French commercial 'planes have been effected between Paris and London. During that period 1,179,984 pounds of freight, 23,269 passengers, and 20,909 pounds of mail have been curried. These figures place the LondonParis airway in tho front rank of world airlines from the point of view’ of the quantity of traffic handled. The Transport and Travel Company, tho Instone Line, and the Hadley-Pag© Transport Company, are Hie English companies which have been operating on this route; and the Handley Page passenger 'plane carries fourteen passengers. The Farman-Goliath, which is used by one of the Fiench companies, develops a speed of 97 miles per hour, lias a useful load of 44?0 pounds, and accommodation for twelve passengers. ALL RED AIR LINERS. SOME) INTERESTING DETAILS. Commander Burney, R.N., whoso scheme for estublisliir g a service of giant passenger carrying airships on an AIL Red ioute to Egypt and India has been accepted by the British Cabinet, discussed some interesting details of his plans with a representative of the “Westminster Gazette'’ the other day. The question of _ rhe method of mooring the air leviathans at their various “ports of call” was broached to him as being ono in which the passengers would have a siecial interest. “On that point.” he said, “there wili be special mooring masts about 180 feet high These will be constructed on the Eiffel Tower principle, with a large passenger and luggage lift through the centre The ship will be moored by the nose from tho top of the tower, and a gangway run from a platform on tho tower into the body of the ship, so chat passengers can walk on board.” On such long journeys as are con-, temptated—from England to India, and thence to Australia and New Zealand—-ever-changing and very quickly varying climates ’have to be taken into consideration in the case of air liners of the dimensions provided for. vessels of a capacity of 5,500,000 cubic feet, and capable of carrying 150 to 200 passengers, besides their luggage and some ten tons of mails. When this aspect of the matter was mentioned to Commander Burney, he said : “We have to consider very carefully the super-heating effect of the sun’s rays upon the gas (hydrogen). Tlie effect, in fact, has been worked out with scrupulous care, with the result that we know exactly what allowance to make.” The great airships, which will be about double the size of any existing to-day, vVfe to be built at Bedford, and the workshop;, in which they will be constructed have already been erected. ROUND THE WORLD IN 31 DAYS. A round-the-world trip in 31 days is now nearing realisation. Not only is a British compajy planning a 74-hour aeroplane service between London and Bombay, but the French Government has given permission to a French air mail oompany to organise 24-hour flights between Paris and Bucharest, thereby , cutting three days from the normal travel schedule. These planes will carry 16 passengers, a cook, and a porter to make up the beds before sundown. Eachmachine will have a wireless telephone to keep in touch with European broadcasting stations. The extension of the line from Bucharest to Bombay is being considered, and may be carried out before the end of the yea*. AIR MAILS BY NIGHT. NEW YORK TO 'FRISCO IN 30 HOURS. Tho night flying of the air mail service between Chica*. UJinois, and Cheyenne, Wyoming, is now in full operation; and the time of the air mail, via Chicago, between New York and San Francisco has been reduced to 80 hours, for fhe 2500 miles, as against 87 hours by the fast mail train. On the eastern edge of the night zone, Chicago, there is stationed „a beacon light of 325 million candle-power —at the western end, Cheyenne, 800 mile* away another of the same power, also at lowa City, Obama, and North Platto, points where permanent landing fields nave been laid out. At lesser intervals, eyory twenty-five miles, there will be beacons of 5,300,000 candle-power, marking what will be known as emergency landing fields. These smaller searchlights will be located at more than thirty places along tho route.’ The combined strength of these powerful rays, if united into one great shaft of brilliance, >pould be equivalent to tho light of far from two billion candlas. The visibility of these lights is such, that the speeding pilots of the night mail, 7000 feet above the earth, will never bo out of sight of one or the other of these friends beams. The big lights can be seen at a distanco of fifty miles, and the smaller lights arc discernible thirty miles away.. Leaving one behind him, the pilot will immediately pick up ilie next one, so that his course will be marked beyond any possibility of mistake. The saving of time to Eastern mints is from throe to four days each day. A “flying mail train” is the latest typo of aeroplane tb be developed in Eingland. In the plane’s tonil chamber, states the “Daily Chronicle's” aeronautical expert, sorters will be able to carry on their work just as they might in a railway mail train. The aeroplane in question will have a radius of 2609 miles, and will be able, to *tay up in the air 24 hours without alighting. SUBMARINE-CARRIED SEIAPLAN ES. The United StntTJS is manufacturing very small seaplanes to be carried inside

submarines. The submarine will rise to the surface, and the ''planes will fly oil, carrying TNT or gas bombs to attach enemy ships or coast towns. PROGRESS IN BRITAIN. The British Air Ministry's report on the progress of civil aviation for the year ending March 31st last shows that in regard to air transport, the number of flights, internal and Continental, was iiXK), in the course of which 11,460 passengers and 216.4 tons of goods were carried. In the previous year the corresponding figures were 1136 flights, 5(592 passengers, and 26.6 tons of goods. A larger proportion of the total flying consisted of air transport, as distinct from, pleasure flying, than in the previous year. The bright spot is the increase in the passenger and goods traffic. The latter factor is very encouraging, and is being felt by all the British companies. A PREDICTION. Aeroplanes will be used for business and pleasure in. the United States within the next ten years on a scale commensurate with the extension of automobile traffic between 1903 and 1915, is a prediction made in a statement issued by the U.S. Department of Commerce. TO XBE POLE BY AIRSHIP. ZR-1, the United States Navy's new rigid ai rehip, is to make the first air trip to the North Pole from Lakehurst, New Jersey. Rear-Admiral William A. Moffett, chief of the United States Bureau of Aeronautics, says that the voyage will be an easy one, there being lese than 400 miles to fly across the sea, while the ship has the endurance to fly 5000 miles without a stop when fitted up for the Norlh Pole venture. As a matter of fact, Commander Fitzhugh Green, of the United States Navy, predicts that by the middle of 1930, at the latest, commercial aviation across the Polar Sea will be an accomplished ftact. There is, he contends, little room for argument, in the matter. . Xokio and London, for example, he points out, are 10,000 miles apart by the everyday routes; while, across the \op of the world, these two great capital* are only 5000 miles from each other. And these 5000 miles from the aviator's point of view—considering weather, fuel, and landing space —are more than three times as easy to cover by J plane than the same number of miles around the mountain-studded centre of the globe.