AERIAL NAVIGATION.

Otago Witness, Issue 3383, 15 January 1919, Page 37

AERIAL NAVIGATION.

(By Cable.) It is reported that the Allies intend to use the surrendered Zeppelins and aero- v planes for commercitl purposes. / Mr Bonar Law will fly to France on Saturday. Mr Lloyd George declined to fly. • The evening papers state that Lang has been arrested for disclosing details of his \ altitude record. «j TRANS-ATLANTIC FLIGHT. | It is likely that a party of Australian • flying men will attempt to win the Daily, . Mail's £IO,OOO prize for a trans-Atlantio' ; flight. Men are now preparing to us©' a".' Handley-Page machine for the task, ■ '\, : Four army aeroplanes from San Diego have arrived,,having made the first trans- j continental flight. Owing to repeated / breakdowns the journey occupied a month, j FROM LONDON TO AUSTRALIA. ,»> The managing director of an aircraft manufacturing company says he is absolutely confident that within a reasonable time 100 miles an hour will be the net ; , speed, and between Melbourne and Londonwill be a regular institution journey. ; From London to Sydney will occupy four ', days. • I A Daily Chronicle i-epresentative inter-? g viewed Mr Holt Thomas, director of the: j Aircraft Manufacturing Company, whose f directorate Major Brancker has juet / joined. Mr Holt Thomas says the air X journey to Australia can now be done at r a hundred miles an hour, including stop- / pages, and the speed for a world journey I will soon be 130 miles an hour. A singls airman will not fly all the way to New !• South Wales. One man will go to Paris \ and find another, airman waiting there. In | five minutes the mail receptacles, will bo \ transferred to the second machine, which will resume the journey. A 300- , mile trip is sufficient for any one pilot. It / is important to develop an air-cooled . engine to replace the present water-cooled engine, which becomes faulty in%he tropics . and the Antarctic regions, through the . water either boiling or freezing* A trans-Atlantic flight, Mr Holt Thomas says, should be accomplished in 1919, bet : no seaplane could stand the Atlantia roller. • Z Captain Shortridge has arrived at Pre-r toria to make arrangements for a trial . flight and prepare landing-places betweeni Broken Hill and Capetown. ;• . A- second party has gone to German East Africa, and a third party is working south to complete the line of communica*. tion between London and Capetown. It is estimated that tie flying hours will roughly total a hundred. The stopping places "on the southern" sector will be Broken Hill. Victoria Falls, Palapye, Pretoria, Beaufort West, and Capetown. The Australian Government has agreedto the registration of a company proposing to link up Australia with the Indo Europe aerial service. An expedition starts during the present month to survey and chart a portion of the route for the service. j