WHAT WILL HAPPEN WHEN WORLD IS GLIDER-MINDED.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19154, 21 August 1930, Page 8

WHAT WILL HAPPEN WHEN WORLD IS GLIDER-MINDED.

To-Day’s Signed Article

Specially Written for the “Star" By Alan J. Shod.

It is 1950. The air is filled with huge dirigibles carrying tremendous loads of human freight and commercial cargoes from distant lands. Speed ‘planes, virtually all engine and no body, streak like comets in the higher lanes at 700 and 800 miles an hour. In the suburbs, a few miles away from towering cities, tiny moth-like gliders silently drop to the turf with returning shoppers.

The age of the air “ car,” so confidently predicted by leaders in aeronautics in 1930 and the decade before, has become real. The gnat-hke gliders, equipped with removable motors, have taken the place of the Fords that once filled the highways of the earth. Looking downward from the heights the flyer sees the face of the land virtually deserted.

JT REQUIRES no great foresight to paint this picture. Already the Graf Zeppelin has circumnavigated the earth, soaring above Arctic silence and the burning jungles, over seas and oceans with leads of freight and passengers. Swift ships have become a common sight over our towering buildings. And now the glider, neglected for almost thirty years, is coming into its own. Experts predict with confidence that gliding will become a popular sport for children and for adults, and already in many countries large schools are forming gliding clubs. Shall We Have Air “ Cars ”? What will it lead to? Can it ever be more than a sport, this gliding. Will it be confined to a mere take-off and a quick landing after a comparatively brief thrill of flight? Or will it e-pen the way to mass production of air “ cars.”

Undoubtedly the glider enthusiasm so prevalent in 1930 will not stop at the sport phase. It must lead to practical use. It seems to be the obvious thing that the glider will pave the way for really popularising aviation. We may expect to see gliders slipping like swift hawks from under the bellies of dirigibles, dropping passengers at their destinations. We may see them darting away from super-airships with loads of bombs in times of war. They make obsolete the modern parachute. We may see them equipped with detachable motors. And they would be tiny motors, such as we now use to power our motor-cycles, inexpensive, simple and efficient, economically operated. The ideal mode of transportation for the poor man of to-morrow. Rocket Propulsion Development. Another possible development of the glider may come in with perfection of the rocket-propulsion era. Men may be shot from the ground by high explosive, and when they have gained sufficient altitude, flatten out and use the air currents to get to their destinations. Reaching out into the fantastic, we can see the tiny glider, shot beyond the earth’s atmosphere and gravitational influence, wandering in interstellar space, journeying to new worlds. Adventurers, unafraid, wandering through space in enclosed bullets that are equipped with sturdy wings. Past rushing stars and comets, with the speed of light towards strange planets. Dropping upon the silent surfaces of new worlds. On dead worlds and worlds just coming to life. Having strange encounters with horrible monsters. Mingling with savage and angelic races now unknown to men.

And returning, after long visits to the jungles of the moon, to the temples of Venus, to the ruddy surface of Mars, our neighbour, carrying home in their tiny cockpits new metals, new elements, new plants and fruits and vegetables that will send our civilisation spurting ahead at tremendous speeds. Becoming Citizens of the Universe. Unlocking for man the mystery of the great worlds that lie barely within our sight. Winging our way to the stars that twinkle now, so distant and remote. Laughing at space and time. Babbling no longer of international peace, citizens of the universe. Returning from the great beyond with radium in greater quantities than earth could ever yield, giving man a wealth of tremendous power, enabling him to use the precious metal to propel his ships, to take

the place of coal and steam, to be used in healing the sick. It is a mad dream, of course. It may be that in the worlds that lie beyond our reach we shall find none of these things. It may be that we shall never pierce the force that keeps man within the atmosphere that clings to his little world, but we do not know what the future holds and we have the right to dream. At least, we shall see the air “ car ” flying our sky lanes, carrying home the poor man and the rich man. We and our children shall know the way of the bird in the air and we shall take it as naturally as we now dc< the high road, with power controlled by the twist of a finger. Becoming Glider-Minded. We shall work in the cities and fly to the cleaner atmosphere of our distant homes in the open, tree-filled country within a short span of time. The train and the autobus, the tramcar and the motorcar will lie, deep in rust, by the high road. Certainly we shall see the pages of our newspapers filled with accounts of glider contests, just as we read now of cross-country Marathons and Varsity track events. And that time is not far off. Become gliderminded, for you and your children will be creatures of the air. It is inevitable. Aerial pioneers have demonstrated the possibilities of the glider. They see it as one of the greatest of all sports and it is fast finding favour with women. The glider, revived, is destined to bring new blessings to man in the way of individual transportation. The bicycle craze of the nineties will have its counterpart in the gliding fever now sweeping the -world. The experts say so, and they know. (Anglo-American N.S. Copyright.)