The AIRWAY

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 492, 23 October 1928, Page 14

The AIRWAY

By

"THE ROC"

Hamilton aero enthusiasts are still living in hopes that they will soon be in a position to start a club. At present, however, their one ray of sunshine comes from the fact that a private machine has been ordered.

The Plane To Come In an article “Our Future in the Air,” Sir Alan Cobham writes: Having got rid of the fuselage of the present-day airplane, what of the engines. Our machine of the future will certainly carry more than one engine, and in all probability they will be of the Diesel type. The total horse power of these engines will probably be about 10,000. There will be several propellers, but, unlike the machines of to-day, they will not be connected to an individual engine. The engines will be enclosed in a special engine-room or cabin, and the propellers will be geared so as to enable one engine to drive more than one propeller. It will also b© unnecessary for all of the engines to be at work if ordinary cruising speed is all that is required.

While dealing with engines, 1 must say that I have not overlooked the possibility that one day power will be transmitted from the ground by wireless, and thus render the presence of actual engines unnecessary. One of the chief

Sir A Cobham drawbacks to com fortable flying to-day is. the terrific noise. This will be largely obviated in the machine of the future, for. already, remarkable progress has been made in the production of experimental “silent” airplanes. The speed of our “dream” machine will be round about 250 miles an hour, and I estimate that the total weight of such a machine will be at least 50 tons, and that about 125 passengers will be carried. By 1978 we shall have overcome most of the difficulties connected with i the elements, and flying the Atlantic will be a comparatively routine job. Fighting Aircraft Cabled advice from London states that after exhaustive trials with 13 fast fighting types, the Air Ministry has ordered a fleet of • all-metal Bristol bulldog single-seated fighting planes with 500 horse-power engines. They are claimed to be the fastest

fighters in the world. It is also understood that an experimental daylight bombing squadron, equipped with the new Fairey Rolls-Royce engine, and faster than existing fighters, is being formed. In Alaska the herding, of reindeer by air has been tried with success Ralph Lomen, pioneer of the Alaskan reindeer industry, stated that recently their head herdsman went out in a plane and accomplished as much in two hours as would otherwise have taken a week with six men. Is it possible that the plane may have similar scope out on big^ cattle runs? The Australian Defence Department has invited tenders for the supply to the R.A.A.F. of 14 Moth planes, to be constructed in Australia. Home-made Plane Many Auckland aero enthusiasts were quite disappointed yesterday when Messrs. E. and A. Everson, two young Aucklanders who have built a monoplane modelled on the Southern Cross, at a cost of £2OO, decided to postpone the trial flight of their machine. “Evo,” as the plane has been named, will essay its first flight in about a fortnight’s time. We wish “Evo” and her owners the best of luck. * * * Craze For Speed “Unless shipowners utilise aircraft as an ally,” said the Director of Civil Aviation, Sir Sefton Brancker, in his presidential address before the Institute of Transport at London recently, “they will find it a definite and inevitable rival, depriving them of some of the most valuable traffic—namely, mails.” Passengers, he added, are prepared to pay for speed He suggested

Uiat shipowners m their future programmes should arrange to carry firstCiass mails and speed passengers by air. Tnis woulo enable them to build slower, more comfortable and more profitable ships for ordinary passengers and freight. Oversea railways, which were constructed in order to create traffic, ofiered lessons for the development of Imperial air routes. He pointed out that regular commercial services throughout the world flew 22,887,000 miles last ye*;.-, compared with 1,170,000 in 1919. Routes regularly covered embraced 73,300 miles, and every extension decreased 'overhead charges. The India mail route should show a surplus in the near future. He added that the light airplane would be a serious rival to the motor, both for business and pleasure. More Speed Wanted Interviewed concerning the flight of the Graff Zeppelin across the Atlantic, Commander C. D. Burney said that he considered that neither the Zeppelin nor the RIOO, now nearing completion, possesses sufficient speed to carry out a regular transatlantic service. The cruising speed of the Zeppelin was 65 miles an hour. The RIOO will fly about 75 miles an hour, but for a passage against the prevailing westerly winds she must have a cruising speed d’f 95 to 100 miles an hour and must complete the voyage in two to two and a-half days before flights by airship would become a practical commercial proposition. A race to bring to London from Africa the first pictures of incidents in the visit of the Prince of Wales to Nairobi was won by the King’s Cup winner. Captain W. L. Hope. He accomplished the perilous journey of 6,000 miles in 10 days in a Gipsy Moth plane. Canterbury Aero Club In spite of the fact that Government planes have been continually zooming over Christchurch ever since the advent of the Wigram airdrome nearly 10 years ago, the idea of private flying in the Southern city does not appear to have met with as much keenness and enthusiasm as it has in Auckland, where, for some time past, and in fact at the present, airplanes are somewhat of a rara avis. It took the Canterbury Aero Club until last Tuesday to decide to accept the offer made by the Government of a subsidy of £ 500 and two airplanes. It was stated that it would be necessary for each pupil to find £35 to £4O in order to learn to fly. A recommendation was made to the committee that a fund be formed for the purchase of one or more planes. The membership of the club is now 176. * * * Answers To Correspondence W.W., Ardmore Road, Herne Bay.— For the particulars you require concerning the A.A.C. it would be advisable for you to get in touch with Major G. Cowper, the club’s instructor, c.o. Baker and Swan, Lister Buildings. “Cecilia,” Ponsonby. —A.: Yes, the club has already two lady members who intend to fly. B: It will be necessary for you to do 40 hours’ solo flying before you can carry a passenger. E.W.G., New Lynn. —The approxi-

mate costs of various light planes landed in New Zealand are as follow: D.H. Moth £BOS Avro Avian £750 Westward Widgeon .. .. £750 Blackburn Bluebird .. .. £BOO The four above-named machines are all installed with the Gipsy engines, while the Blackburn Bluebird machine hae side-by-side seating. There is no duty on the importation of British aircraft to the Dominion. “Wings,” Remuera. —The solo altitude record for light planes was broken by Lady Heath, the famous woman aviator, formerly Mrs. Elliott Lynn, at Croydon Airdrome, England, on October 4 of this year. She flew a moth machine fitted with a Cirrus engine and reached a height of 26,000 feet, or nearly five miles. The altitude was recorded by two sealed barographs in the tail of the machine which automatically registered the height.

The previous British official height record was 20,000 feet, made by Captain de Haviland, and the greatest unofficial recorded altitude was attained just after the war in a D.H. Napier bombing plane, by Captain Lang, w h o reached 30,000 feet. Lady Heath took 67 minutes to

reach the maximum altitude, but only ten minutes to return to earth. The frost formed on the outside of her goggles, and it was so cold that the engine stopped. Otherwise she could have gone higher.