CONQUEST OF THE AIR

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12393, 12 March 1926, Page 12

CONQUEST OF THE AIR

ENSURING GREATER SAFETY ROVE TEST FOR NEW AIRSHIP COMBATTING GALES By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. Published in ‘'The Tiroes." LONDON, March 9. For the purpose of ensuring that there will be no repetition of the airship R3S disaster, engineers are preparing a novel test for the structural strength of the airship RlOl, which the Government is constructing at Cardington. While the airship is in the ‘■rouge of construction, they will centre section, 130 ft in diameter, complete with inflated gasbags, endwise to huge hangar doors, and subject the new steel girders to loads greatly in excess of those possible during a gale, or in a sudden turning movement.

. MILITARY AVIATION

HAS SUFFICIENT BEEN DONE? Australian and N. 7. Cable .Association. LONDON, March 9. A long debate on' the Air Estimates took place in the House of Commons. Ministerialists questioned whether sufficient had been done to develop military aviation. They pointed out the important influence of civil flying as an aid to commerce and defence. One speaker said that Germany’s subsidised services flew eight times ihe mileage of the Imperial Airways. Sir Harry Brittain alluded to the splendid achievements of Australia’s services with machines of an old type. Africa and India by comparison had dono little. It was a matter worth taking up by the Imnerial Conference. The Air Minister. Sir Samuel Hoare, replying, said that- the establishment of a service to India would inaugurate T new era of civil aviation.

HOME DEFENCE T>"‘ ' Tele-Tram Sir Samuel Hoare, in reply to the debate, emphasised that the Government was seriously dealing with' the problem of disarmament. Dealing with home defence, he said: “Possibly we shall never make it impossible for an attacking air force to penetrate to the shores of Britain,' but if the Government’s programme is carried out, it will be so risky that, a foreign Power would think many tttnes before it attacked us Many of our air squadrons are now equipped with parachutes, of which already 727 Have- been delivered.” He believed that soon the wholeAir Force would thus be equipped. As regards Empire policy he was already arranging agenda for the Imperial Conference. and he would take full account of Sir Harry Brittain’s interesting observations. Sir Phiilp Sassoon referred to Mr Alan Cobham’s flight to the Cane, and also the Cairo-Cape flight, ,He said (hat they looked to flights like the latter for important developments in blazing the trajl. It was in this way that the development of air communications could most easily he carried out, and it should be the basis of our civil flying development. Arrangements were being made to organise me'teorological and auxiliary wireless services for-the new India route, and an officer of the Air Ministry had gone out to investigate matter. The report stage of the Air Estimates was agreed to.

IMPROVED CYLINDERS

SUBJECT TO SEVERE TESTS Published in "The Times.’’ LONDON, March 9. With all parts sealed by the Air Ministry, a British “Jupiter” ninecylinder, air-cooled, radial aero engine, of 450 horse-power, has completed 25,000 miles in 226 hours’ actual flying without adjustment, thus outdistancing in length of flight the world’s equatorial circumference.. Two pilots alternately flew the machine on some days exceeding a thousand miles. This is probably the severest test any aero •ngine has been subjected to.