ATLANTIC RECORD LOWERED.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18636, 4 August 1930, Page 9

ATLANTIC RECORD LOWERED.

Flight Of Giant Airship. JOYS OF AIR TRAVEL. United Press Association—By Electrlo Telegraph—Copyright OTTAWA, August 1. At St. Hubert, Quebec, Sir Dennistoun Burney, Director of Aircraft Development, and designer of RIOO, said on Friday: “We never had a bump all the way across the Atlantic; everything went perfectly until the airship reached the farther point of Quebec. There we ran into a bad bump. A jar tore the fabric on a stabilising fin. The damage, which was negligible, wai temporarily repaired. The most valuable thing we learned was that travel by airship was the most comfortable means of transportation. The course taken was the most feasible for commercial use, if larger airships were used. It was a very good test of the ship’s ability. The chief benefit we derived was experience. We need longer flights to gain experience in handling lighter air craft.” RIOO set a record for westward diri* gible Atlantic crossing. The eastward flight has been made in much faster time. ACTUAL FLYING TIME. JOURNEY OF SEVENTY-NINE HOURS. jsritish Official Wireless RUGBY, August 1. The log of the journey of the airship RIOO, which safely moored at Montreal at 9.20 Greenwich mean time, is published. The voyage in the early stages was relatively uneventful, and the log states that cards and sleep were the most popular methods of passing the time. Everybody was able to keep warm without recourse to flying kit, and the electric radiators in the passengers’ cabin were unheeded. The log proceeds:—“Two hours after temporary repairs had been completed to the damaged fin the ship passed through a thunderstorm and violently disturbed air currents. The ship’s height varied rapidly between 1500 and 4000 feet. We avoided many thunderstorms, and dropped the main wire at 4 a.m. local time, and a good landing was made. “The time in the air was about 79 hours, of which eight had been due to the damaged fin. The crew made a really good job of the repair. “The petrol on board at the end of the flight was five tons.” OFFERS OF HANGAR SPACE. CANADIAN PROGRAMME STANDS. United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright (Received August 3, 5.5 p.m.) WASHINGTON, August 1. The secretary (Mr Adams) states that facilities at Lakehurst are available for the use of dirigible RIOO, if hangar space is required to effect repairs. Reports from Montreal, however, indicate that RIOO's officers hope that such a move will prove unnecessary, in order to lulfil the proposed Canadian schedule. A message from Saint Hubert states that repairs to the stabilising fin of RIOO were well under way on Saturday, while the ship was moored to the post, 200 ft above ground. Windy weather is delaying progress. In the meantime, plans are indefinite for Canadian trips, and no date has been set for the return trip. ROUND THE WORLD FLIGHT. ZEPPELIN'S RECORD ATTACHED. United Pi css Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright (Received August 3, 5.5 p.m.) WASHINGTON. August 2. Captain John Henry Mears, the farfamed globe-t.’otter, in an endeavour to regain his round the world record, taken by the Graf Zeppelin, has left Roosevelt Field this morning for Harbour Grace, in the Lockhede-Vegar cabin monoplane the “City of New York,” with H. J. Brown as pilot. A Sealyham terrier accompanies them. Captain Mears, who made records in 1913 and 1923, now hopes to fly round the world in twenty days, thus beating the Graf Zeppelins 23 days 15 hrs. The fl.ght will be via Dublin, Berlin, Moscow, Novasibrak, Chita, Khabarovsk, Chignik, across Bering Sea fringe, and the North Pacific, to Seattle, Chicago and New York. The “City of New York” is fitted with high wings, and 425 horse power, Wasp motors. The ’plane has a flying range of eighteen hours, 2500 miles, and a cruising speed of 150 miles. The flight is expected to take fifteen to twenty days. A message from Harbour Grace states that Captain Mears arrived there on Saturday afternoon. He leaves to-night or to-morrow for Baldonnel.