FLYING NOTES

Southland Times, Issue 21428, 24 June 1931, Page 10

FLYING NOTES

THE PRINCE IN THE AIR. London, May 5. The Prince of Wales, fresh from his magnificent tour of Latin America, has lost little time in following up his thousands of miles of air travel there with official aeroplane journeys at home. One of his first engagements after his return takes him next week to Manchester, where he will address members of the Chamber of Commerce on the lessons of his American visit. Naturally enough the most illustrious and one of the keenest, of private aeroplane owners in the world has chosen to travel north by air and his hosts for the day have been asked to meet him at the Manchester Airport. Attended by his personal pilot, Mr E. H. Fielden, the Prince will fly in his own “Puss Moth” light monoplane, the machine in which he covered great distances in Argentina. There is reason to expect that the Prince will resort still more frequently this year to the aeroplane, whether his own craft or a Royal Air Force communications 'plane, as a means of travel even for his journeys inside the British islands. He appreciates the time and trouble saved and mightily enjoys the experience, being himself an excellent pilot and generally managing to spend a good deal of time at the controls. Constantinople in One Day.

Though disappointed of a triumphant flight to Australia Captain T. Neville Stack and his companion Mr Chaplin have made flying history, and their enforced temporary abandonment of the project to fly to Australia and back in three weeks should not be permitted to dim the lustre of two record flights between London and Constantinople. The feat of reaching Constantinople from England in one day had never before been accomplished; the return flight to London was even better in point of time and distance flown. At 4.22 a.m. on Saturday the airmen set forth from Lympne aerodrome, Kent, in a fast Vickers twoseater biplane, deriving power from a 550 h.p. Napier “Lion” engine. They were ready to fly all of every day in an attempt to get to Port Darwin and back inside twenty-one days, thus demonstrating in no uncertain manner how a high-speed mail service might be operated half round'the world. In the tanks were 265 gallons of fuel, sufficient for a non-stop flight of ten hours, cruising at 135 miles an hour. Top speed of the 'plane is more than 150 m. p. h., and it is therefore far the swiftest aeroplane yet to attempt the Australia journey. In a special compartment was carried a small freight load, including messages and documents to deliver on behalf of the London Chamber of Commerce at various points along the route. A Night Landing.

Stack’s itinerary provided for the airmen to reach Vienna in the first day of the outward flight. Actually the ’plane descended there at 11 o’clock in the morning. Forty minutes’ halt, while the machine was refuelled, and they were off again to fly 860 miles to Constantinople, where they made a perfect landing at 9 p.m. (local time) two hours after night-fall. The journey of 1660 miles from Lympne had occupied 14 hours actual flying, an average speed over the ground of 119 miles an hour. Head winds were met over much of the ViennaConstantinople stage. Signs of irregular carburation had been noticed during the day and, after examination and discussion. Stack thought best to return immediately to England to get the trouble rectified in the works. Experts are busy to-day looking carefully over the petrol installation; it is thought probable that dirt may have found its way into the pipes leading to the carburettors and thus caused irregular flow to the cylinders. “We Saw Asia—” The return flight was as splendid as the outward trip. The biplane rose from the aerodrome at Constantinople yesterday as dawn was breaking and just before 8 p.m. taxied to a stop outside the hangars at the Heston aerodrome, near London, having covered more than 1,700 miles in 14} hours. One intermediate halt was made at Belgrade for oil and fuel. Stack and Chaplin were able to say to friends in London last evening, “We saw Asia to-day!” No man in history has previously been able to do that. A Real “Bird-man.” Captain T. Neville Stack, A.F.C., made the first light aeroplane flight to India five years ago. He is one of those airmen who seem to possess a sixth sense, resembling the homing instinct of the birds, which has given rise to the expression that “So-and-so has a compass in his head.” In other words, he is a magnificent cross-country pilot and, with little apparent preliminary calculation and fuss, he contrives most uncannily to arrive exactly at the point intended without deviating perceptibly from a straight line except where the configuration of the ground or bad visibility may oblige him to do so. This ability was wonderfully shown during the light plane journey to India when, after flying 230 miles across the Mediterranean most of the way in low cloud and mist, Stack passed over the north African coast within a few yards of the exact spot he had indicated on the map before leaving Malta. Few of the world’s airmen are equally well fitted for the task he has set himself of showing how the air mail services may be improved and accelerated.

2000 Miles a Week. , Striking figures of the distances that the traveller may cover comfortably by air and the time he saves are calculated by an Imperial Airways expert who recently planned a tour in a specially chartered machine for a passenger who wished to visit Palestine, Iraq and Syria in quick time. The total time available was six days, or 144 hours. First, a deduction of 48 hours, at the generous allowance of eight hours a day, was made for sleep. The total distance to be flown was 2,152 miles, accomplished in reasonable conditions with ease in 26 hours of flying. Thus, hours available for sightseeing and refreshment amounted to 70, or nearly twelve hours a day. The places to be seen were well worth that expenditure of time —Baghdad, Ur of the Chaldees, Babylon, Ctesiphon, Samara, Mosul (the ancient Nineveh), Jerusalem, Palmyra, Damascus, Acre and Petra. And no ground traveller could possibly manage the trip within the week.