HEIGHT AND SPEED.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume IV, Issue 40, 27 January 1936, Page 6

HEIGHT AND SPEED.

Forecast of Travel in the Stratosphere.

CRUISING AT 300 m.p.h. 40,000 FEET HIGH. London, January 4. Cruising at a height of 40,000 feet ond at a speed of nearly 300 miles an hour i s forecast by Professor G. T. R. Oill, Kennedy Professor of Engineer-, ing at London University, as a possibility of air-line travel in the : near future. Professor Hill in famous as the designer of the WestlaiuWlill Pterodactyl- tailless aerop.'ane, of which the latest, a military two-seat fighter powered with a Rolls-Royce steam-cooled engine, is under test at MarUesham Heath, landplane experimental station of the Royal Air Force. Professor HO is conscious that his forecast may disappoint those enthusiH asls of stratosphere flying who like to contemplate speeds of the order of 2000 m.p.h. He states, in anticipation of their criticisms, that he does not expect an immediate transference of long-distance travel in the stratosphere, but rather a gradual raising, of the cruising height. His figures are based on available research and reaHonable expectation of engine supercharger development in the next year or two.

He takes as a basis a passenger transport aeroplane of relatively small size, weighing 90001bs. fully laden and carrying up to five passengers over a distance of 2500 miles. He limits maximum power to 800-h.p., and assumes that airscrew efficiency is SO per cent. Ho goes a sliort step further in the direction of fuel economy than is yet achieved. Engines are assumed to be fully supercharged to a height of 30,000 ft., after which the normal loss of power in a further 10,000 ft. will enable the craft to cruise economically at full throttle, but only two-thirds power, at the required height of 40,000 ft. Professor Hill has picked out five imaginary designs. The most efficient cruises at 290 m.p.h. at operational height of 40,000 ft., and takes less than seven hours for the journey of 2500 miles—sufficient for a transAtlantic crossing and with a margin beyond. Its useful load, fuel excepted, is 9301b5., and it carries five passengers in addition to the crew of two. The cabin and pilots' compartJ ment are sealed and carry their own | atmosphere at pressures not far below ground-level pressures. In other words, human beings as well as engines must bo supercharged for "stratosphere" flying. Much useful information which boars upon Professor Hill's prophecy should be gained in the trial, flights of the "stratosphere" machine which flic British Aeroplane Company is building for the Air Ministry. 'Many novel ideas are embodied in its con- i slruelion, and heights of 50,000 to 00.0110 feet may be brought by if. within the reach of the power-driven aircraft. Up to the present the remoter levels of (lie atmosphere have been invaded only by balloon, the record standing at 72,000 ft.