FLIGHT POSTPONED

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 19945, 1 November 1934, Page 14

FLIGHT POSTPONED

COLONEL FITZMAURICES PLANS United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright LONDON. October 30 ! Colonel Fitzmaurice has indefinitely j postponed his flight to Australia, j He is sending the Bellanca to America to undergo alterations and tests which were impossible owing to the haste with which the machine was dispatched to Mildenhall. WHY ins ENTRY WAS BARRED. SCOPE OF REGULATIONS Up to the present no lucid explanation had been given why Colonel Fitzmaurice was barred from participation in the England to Melbourne air race. It is now explained that the preliminaries for the start of the race revealed the unsatisfactory nature of international regulations governing the licensing of aircraft. The spectacular object of the air race was. in the open section at least, to have the fastest planes in the world demonstrating their greatest possible speed and range over the course from London to Melbourne. It was necessary to take reasonable precautions for safety, and the committee organising the event required that machines should substantially comply with the regulations of the International Convention of Aerial Navigation. Unfortunately the regulations f the International Convention have not kept pace with the rapid development of aircraft manufacture. and they do not govern aircraft designed in the United States, which is not a member of the Convention. American aircraft design has definitely followed different lines from that of countries within the Convention. The regulations for airworthiness ignore some of the requirements of the Convention, while they may insist on features that the Convention does not require. So we get the anomaly of recognised types of American machines, which are in constant use for commercial flying, failing to comply with the regulations governing the International Air Race.

The effort of the Centenary Air Race Committee to devise a formula to get over the difficulty was not successful. Delay over obtaining a clearance for his American machine kept Australia’s greatest airman out of the race. The enforcement of regulations governing fuel loading ;.t the last minute upset the calculations of several of the competitors and. by shortening the normal range of their machines, seriously prejudiced their chances. This applied particularly to American machines, which, by the American standards, were airworthy with the heavier loads.