METEOROLOGY AND AVIATION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22476, 22 January 1935, Page 8

METEOROLOGY AND AVIATION

TO THE EDITOR Sib, —In recent advances in meteorology in Science Progress for April, 1934, there are considerations which would appear to affect aviation in the Dominion, and particularly the establish? ment of the airport on the foreshore. Several accidents occurred to aeroplanes in the Bay of Gibraltar owing to exceptional air currents set up by the Rock of Gibraltar in easterly winds. The Air Ministry undertook an investigation, and as a result was able to map out areas that are dangerous for aviators for particular directions of wind in the undisturhed surroundings of Gibraltar. The method used was to test an exact model of the rock in a wind tunnel just ts models of aeroplanes are tested. The ata collected were confirmed by a series of observations made at Gibraltar with the aid of balloons, etc. I do not know if similar experiments, have been carried out in New Zealand; but, if not, the hilly nature of our country makes it imperative that they should be before accidents and loss of human life signify to our lack of knowledge. If the conditions prevalent in Dunedin were similar to those in Gibraltar it might rule out the suitability of the foreshore as an airport, whereas the means of determining this in advance are apparently simple and not costly.—l am, etc., Dunedin, January 21. S. W.