SCOTT’S RECORD ATTACKED

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 19943, 30 October 1934, Page 7

SCOTT’S RECORD ATTACKED

“IRISH SWOOP” SETS OUT LATER RETURNS DAMAGED TO CROYDON United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright (Received October 29, 10.0 p.m.) LONDON, October 29. Colonel Fitzmaurice, in the American Bellanca ’plane, “Irish Swoop,” left Lympne for Melbourne at 7.14 a.m. ’PLANE TURNS BACK STATEMENT BY COLONEL FITZMAURICE United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph —Copyright (Received October 30, 12.55 a.m.) LONDON, October 29. Colonel Fitzmaurice returned to Lympne at 10.5 a.m. minus a piece of the under-carriage shield. Piloted by Bonar, the Bellanca ’plane took off splendidly under 300 yards. Before his departure Colonel Fitzmaurice, who was acting as wireless operator and navigator, paid a tribute to the help given by Air Ministry officials. He said he could not have been treated better, if he used a British machine. He hoped to reach Baghdad in ten hours. The Bellanca carried 600 American gallons of petrol. Colonel Fitzmaurice said that flying at about 230 miles an hour they had passed Liege when the damage to the wing’s under-carriage was discovered. Returning, they dumped 150 gallons of petrol in the Channel to facilitate landing, after which they flew to Croydon for repairs. An earlier message reported that Colonel Fitzmaurice left Lympne aerodrome at 6.30 a.m. on Sunday, but returned owing to brake trouble. Repairs were made. Colonel Fitzmaurice and Bonar intended to leave Lympne for Australia at 3 a.m. on Friday, conforming with the conditions of the Centenary Air Race in order to prove the Irish Swoop’s capabilities and in the hope to beat Scott’s record. After a repetition of trouble with the oil feed, however, Fitmaurice had an additional pipe fitted, thus postponing the start probably for twenty-four hours. American Limitation. A cable message received the previous Saturday suggested that Fitzmaurice’s trouble was not due to the ruling of the British race officials, but to the limitations imposed by the American officials, who had given a certificate for the purposes of the race for a total machine weight of only 54001 b, and a second “restricted” certificate (not acceptable for the race) for 8000 lb. The message continued: The committee had previously discussed the position in secret for two hours, after which a cable was sent to the American Government asking whether it was prepared to authorise the aeroplane to fly at a higher limit. The American Government replied that it could not issue such a certificate. The committee then explained that it must abide by the regulations, requiring competitors to produce a certificate of airworthiness for a full load. The same position apparently held in the case of Kingsford Smith’s Altair and possibly also of Roscoe Turner’s Boeing. The difficulty has arisen through the adoption of different standards and calculations in Great Britain and America in the granting of certificates of airworthiness, and seemingly America, in issuing certificates which would be at once acceptable in Great Britain, has been conservative. At any rate, Fitmaurice has now succeeded in convincing the British officials that his machine is airworthy with a full load of petrol. Would Hand Prize to Charity. Colonel Fitzmaurice’s entry was financed by Mr Joseph McGrath, managing director of the Irish Hospitals Trust, and from the first it was made clear that neither the nominator nor the pilot was out for prize money as cash. Ireland was to be represented: that was a main consideration. At a luncheon given at the Savoy Hotel, London, some months ago, and prior to the selection of the American Bellanca machine, in honour of Colonel Fitzmaurice a letter from Mr McGrath was read stating that in the event of a win by a British machine the prize money would go to hospital charities in England, and would be divided if a foreign machine was piloted by Fitzmaurice to first place. More recently Mr McGrath extended that statement, and said that if the Irish entry won he would have great pleasure in handing the money over to charity. The discussion over the Bellanca has certainly brought Fitzmaurice and his Irish Swoop (a play, of course, upon Irish Sweep) before the world, and if he does break the astounding record made by Scott he will stay before the world for some time. A Crew of Four. Colonel Fitzmaurice is a spectacular man. He made a name in aviation as one of the crew of the German Junker all-metal “Bremen” which made the first non-stop east-to-west flight across the Atlantic in 1928. Sergeant Eric Bonar, his co-pilot, was also a member of the Bremen’s crew, but Bonar missed the limelight, then and since. Fitzmaurice and Bonar are the only names mentioned in cabled messages but it is stated in Australian publications that there will be a crew of four, Fitzmaurice and Bonar attending the piloting, Captain J. P. Saul, who was with Kingsford Smith on his transAtlantic flight, being the navigator,

and Joseph Gilmore, a parachute expert, flying as third pilot and mechanic. There is no confirmation of this statement. Fitzmaurice has hinted at unorthodox but extremely rapid methods of refuelling; just what this secret method is may be seen as the course is covered. He is not nearly so experienced an airman as Scott or Black, as Parmentier or Moll, Jones and Waller, or Turner and Pangborn, but what he has done he has done very well and always with a flourish. He has a genius for a front place and is wonderfully popular in Ireland, where he is recognised as the national air ace. Recently he made a special trip over the race route as far as Batavia and a much more detailed survey was made a little later by Bonar. Upon these two surveys they worked out their plans to a complete detail, with or without secret refuelling methods. Very High Speed Claimed Bellanca aircraft have a list of remarkable successes, including seven Atlantic crossings and an amazing crossing of the Pacific, Japan to Vancouver, 4600 miles, by Pangborn in 1931. For a time a Bellanca held the world’s endurance record. They are fully-proved machines. Most of the Bellanca models are high-wing' monoplanes in which the supporting struts, rising to the wing-tips at an angle, are flatted to act as plane surface, but Fitzmaurice’s machine, designed specifically for the race, is a low-wing monoplane without the typical Bellanca struts, with retractable landing gear and a single Wright Cyclone engine of 715 horse power. The wing area is 280 square feet, about that of an Altair. The maker’s claims are for a maximum speed of 255 m.p.h. and a cruising speed of 235 m.p.h., with a range of over 3000 miles. The landing speed, with wing flaps, is low, 52 m.p.h. The speeds are high; so was the price, 45,000 dollars at the factory door, £9260. The entry of such a machine in a race for a £IO,OOO prize (£7500 at Home) was hardly a business investment. Fitzmaurice and his backer and crew have set themselves a stupendous task to reach Melbourne in 58 hours. Fitzmaurice is Irish, Bonar is Scotch, and if Scott’s time is broken it will be for the Irish and the Scots to fight It out among themselves who really did the job.