THE SCHNEIDER CUP

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17030, 15 August 1929, Page 7

THE SCHNEIDER CUP

BRITISH PREPARATIONS SECRET PLANE TESTED 300 MILES AN HOUR. (British Official Wireless.) line. noon. RUGBY, August 14. Air Chief Marshal Sir John Salmond spent to-day at Calshot amongst members of the high-speed flight who are concerned with the race for the Schneider Cun. He embarked in a Southampton flying boat and went round the course over which the Schneider Cup race is to be flown. Squadron Leader Orlebar took up the new S 6 machine, built by Great Britain for the Schneider Cup race, and flying at great speed completed its tests. The 86 has been flown twice only before. On each occasion it was handled very gently. To-day, lull power of its engine was tested. The results are believed to have been satisfactory in every way. In taxiing across the water the 86 evidently struck a small piece of driftwood, or some olher obstacle, and one of the floats was dented. The machine was taken to Woolston for repair. The damage is in no way serious.

There is a very distinct medical problem involved in high-speed cornering, which is a feature of such a race as that for the Schneider Cup, which will be flown over a quadrangular course. Group Captain Flack, of the medical research section of the Air Ministry, who has specialised on forces imposed on the human frame in flying, discussed the subject at ; Calshot to-day. Ho said that more than is realised may depend upon pilots rounding e Tiers with* the least loss of speed. If a turn is taken .too wide, full speed may be maintained, but many more miles fiowm. Yet. on the other hand, too sharp a turn will slow down the machine, and, what is equally important. impose terrific acceleration loads ou tho pilot and aircraft. These loads, as the pilot swings round a corner, tend to arrest the normal flow of blood to the brain and eyes, so that if the turn is over-sharp everythin? tends to go black before the pilot’s eyes, and in extreme cases momentary unconsciousness ensues. How sharp these turns can be made with safety depends therefore on the strength both of the aircraft and of tho human physique, and the object of much of this present practice is to establish a limit. (United Service.) Piloting Britain’s mystery plane S 6 over the Schneider Cup course, Suuad-ron-Leader Orlebar several times exceeded 300 miles an hour.