AERIAL DEVELOPMENTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3384, 22 January 1919, Page 41

AERIAL DEVELOPMENTS.

ADMIRALTY AIRSHIPS

(By Cable)

A big programme of airship construction by the Admiralty includes airships with a gas capacity of 2,500,000 cubic feet, with a range of 8000 miles and a speed of from 60 to 70 miles per hour. They have a lifting capacity of 60 tons, and" will carry a crew of 25." The first of these will be launched towards the end of the year. It is stated that they are primarily built for sea patrol and observation work, and will be stationed on the coast. PROJECTED FLIGHTS. It is considered that an airship mail service to America by the summer of 1920 is a certainty. The French " Ace of Aces" (Champion •of Champions), Fouck, will attempt to fly across the Atlantic on a big British aeroplane from the Irish coast in March or April. The Air Ministry is preparing an experimental aeroplr.ne flight to Capetown shortly. It will probably take a week or a fortnight, as no attempt will be made to creata a speed record, but to demonstrate the best route. A FLIGHT TO INDIA. A Handley-Page machine which has arrived in India froni London is one of the Macewan's four-engined giants, previously described in the cables. The journey lasted a month. The aviators experienced bad weather throughout, and fog .delayed the early stages of the journey. A MAIL SERVICE CONTRACT. The New York Times Washington correspondent learns that Caproni has signed a contract with the Brazilian Government to carry an airplane mail from Genoa to Rio Janeiro, via Cadiz and the Azores, within six months of the end of the war ; The first aeroplane post flight carried despatches from Hendon to Versailles in 106 minutes, and returned in under two hours.