GERMAN ROCKET PLANE

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 56, 4 May 1928, Page 5

GERMAN ROCKET PLANE

TRIAL TO BE MADE.

NEW FIELD IN' 'RESEARCH,

United Press Assn.—-By Electric Telegraph Uopyrigbt. LONDON, May 2. The Times' Berlin correspondent say that a serious attempt to shoot an aeroplane with a human aboard into the air will shortly bo made at Berlin. A contract has been completed for the application of the Opel Rocket system. The aircraft occupant of the aeroplane will be Herr Raab, a pilot of long experience, who once astonished Berlin by landing in the Unterdenlindcr. The aeroplane is one of the rfaabkatzenstein-jGrasm&lcke Com pany's light! 'planes). It weighs scwt. Two batteries of rocks will replace the engine, one on cither side of the fusilage between the 'planes. The cross gracing of the structure will be specially strengthened to resist and withstand high speed. It is expected the pilot's part will be to bring the aeroplane to earth l>v gliding flights, after tho rockets havo burned out. If the experiment i. 9 successful an attempt will bo made* to progressively increase tho heights attained by the use of more powerful rockets. Pilots will bo provided with oxygen apparatus and parachutes. Tho Opel Company believe it is technically possible to propel aeroplanes by the rocket method to im-mense-heights well beyond the earth's atmosphere. It is dear tliht a single successful rocket flight will open up an entirely new field in acrounuI tical research, and might affect in imI portant ways tlic whole future of ! aviation. The rocket car which car- | riod ouf> the most successful tests I recently wMI shortly bo tried out I near Berlin.