NEW ZEALAND AIRMAN.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 10180, 15 June 1911, Page 1

NEW ZEALAND AIRMAN.

HOLIDAY VISIT TO HIS HOME. Mil J. J. HAMMOND'S EXPERIENCES. PROGRESS OF AVIATION. [From Orn Corrksi'ONDKNt.] WELLINGTON, June 14. Mr J. J. Hammond, a New Zeala.nder. who has the distinction of being a thoroughly qualiiied aviator, readied Wellington to-day from Australia, where lie has been giving a number of reniarkahly successful flying exhibitions. Ho has not crane to his native country in pursuit of further aviation records, though the dominion is virgin ground. His object is to have a tew weeks' quiet holiday with his_ wife, and to revisit his old home, Feildmg. Aviation exploits have such a fascination that JMr Hammond's life-story has come ahead -of him, highly drawn and with many vivid patches. He disclaims anything more adventurous than a thoroughly good tour of the world, during which'he visited the Kloudyke goldfields, and when in Europe earned a certificate of competency as an aeroplanist at Rheims. FLYING AS A BUSINESS.

" T took up flying as a hobby at first." said Mv Hammond, who is a well-built man of about thirty, quiet in manner and somewhat diffident in talking about himself. "It is an expensive pastime. The motors in 1113 machines cost 500 guineas each at t«e makers' in Paris, and r.t last I went into it as a business on purely business lines. If a few New Zealand cities can put up a. guarantee I will give flying exhibitions here in the summer, and I hope to be able to have an opportunity of appearing in my own country to show how the new science has progressed.''' MR, HAMMOND'S FLIGHTS. "My longest flight without a stop is 200 "miles. That was once a record, but it is now a long way behind. 1 am not a record hunter. As for heignv, my record, is 9900 ft, which I reached by taking big spirals for one and a half hours. In Australia 1 made nearly a hundred flights, travelling between a thousand and twelvo hundred miles."

Mr Hammond used a biplano for most of his exhibitions, but he is uow a firm believer in the monoplane of the Bleriot type. He does not '''.enthuse" about things, but in his comparison of tho two classes of machines he came near it when he detailed the monoplane's merits. In both kinds tho ■motive power is a Gnome engine, with rotating Cylinders running at 1250 revolutions a minute. It "generates fifty horse-power and weighs only 1651b fixed complete. A biplane lias 474 ft of plane surface., the monoplane between 260 ft and 280 ft, both having the same e-gino power. "Forty miles an hour is the best speed with a biplane," said Mr Hammond, "but with the monoplane you can travel twice that speed. If you are expert enough to manage the monoplane you have a better chance of escaping an upset in a fluky wind, because when you travel at eighty miles an hour you are superior to a forty or forty-five mile an hour gale. DANGER AND NERVE. '"' Nerve wanted ? Yes, I suppose so, but I never think of danger, and I've been free from accident so far. never spending a penny on repairs through that cause. The big trouble is the vacuum you encounter now and then. I have dropped like a stone for two or three hundred feet, but if you fly high there is less trouble. I would prefer to be over 2000 ft above windy Wellington if I fly there. The method of getting ont of it for a. cross-country trip would be to riso quite 4000 ft to dodgo the air currents, and make a safe crossing of the nigh hills. I know that there have been many fatalities, but if you read to-day about an accident, you don't read about the couple of thousand successful flights that have taken place on the same day. Aeroplaning is not a tenth part as risky as motor-car racing. Accidents with flying machines are duo either to bad luck or to recklessness—a good deal to recklessness. Take Moissant, poor dare devil, crumpled up near New Orleans. He was of the reckless, circus-acrobat type of performer, who took too many risks. Hox.sey, so his manager told me, died of heart disease at Los Angeles the same day as the Moissant fatality. He came down sitting in his machine, but dead." TREMENDOUS RIVALRY.

European airmen to visit Australia," says the New Zealand aviator, "for tho reason that although the rivalry is tremendous and jealousy rather a big factor in the game, the prizes are enormous. Over is to bo won by airmen on the Continent this year, including £49.000 offered by the French Government, for competition among military machines."

As for the value of the aeroplane in war, Mr Hammond is sure that it will become a big thing for scouting, despatch running and even transport. The Australian Government inspected his machines with a view to utilising aeroplanes in its defence forces, and Mr Hammond will compete for the £15.000 prize offered for competition towards the end of the vear by the Commonwealth Government for a flight between Sydney and Melbourne. The New Zealand Government will be approached by the native-born aviator, who is preuared to assist it if aeroplanes are desired as part of tho unproved defence scheme.