AERIAL DEVELOPMENT

Otago Witness, Issue 3518, 16 August 1921, Page 22

AERIAL DEVELOPMENT

NEW TYPE OF AIRCRAFT. LONDON, August i. A new type of aircraft, partly aeroplane and partly ship, and capable of resting on the ocean in the roughest weather, is undergoing trials in England. She is expected to fly from London to New York in 40 hours. Gigantic flying ships are being designed on the same principle, capable of nrrying 100 passengers, in addition to crew, food, and stores. They will cross the Atlantic in less than 43 hours. HIGH FLYING. LONDON, August 11. When a military aeroplane was flying over Aldershot at a height of 20.000 feet the observer's oxygen pipe broke. The pilot offered to hand over Iffs pipe, but the observer placidly refused, saying he could go another 3000 feet. The plane ascended that height, and when it descended the observer wars delirious, hut he has since recovered. AUSTRALIAN ENTERPRISE. LONDON, August 12. Mrs Hughes launched the first seaplane for the Australian Naval Aircraft Department at Fairey Aviation Works. Hamble, Southampton. Air Hughes was not present. General Seelv presided, the company including Generals Branckner and Sykes, representatives of the Air Forces. General Seely, in proposing success to the commonwealth, eulogised Mr Hughes’s farsightedness in instituting a Commonwealth Am Force, abo the services which he had rendered to the Imperial Conference. Mr Hughes and the other dominion Prime Ministers had stood at Mr Lloyd George’s right hand in the recent critical period. General Seely hazarded the conjecture that if there had been no Imperial Conference there would have been no settlement of the Irish question. The spectacle of tbe dominions participating as sister States in an Imperial crisis was an invaluable object-lesson which appealed to Irish leaders. Air J. AT. Hunter (Agent-General for Queensland) commented on the Government's foresight in organising seaplanes, while the other dominions were onlv thinking about the matter. Six seaplanes would be ready by September, each capable of carrying three people besides bombs, machine guns, ammunition, and wireless. Their speed would Is. 110 miles an hour, and they w< u!d be lilted with Rolls-Royce eijgi n es. After Airs Hughes had launched the plane, it successfully flew over Southampton. cary\||hg four persons, including General Seely and Mrs Coates. AIELBOURNF. August 8. Lieutenant Parer is rapidly recovering, and expects to resume his flight round Australia in 10 or 12 days. The New South Wales Postal Department has decided to institute a tri-weekly aerial mail service between Sydney and Broken Hill. The Commonwealth Air Board announces that as the result of experiments aircraft can be successfully manufactured in Australia from Australian timbers.