SPEED PLANES.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20360, 18 July 1934, Page 5

SPEED PLANES.

America’s Hopes in Big Air Race. WILEY POSTS PLAN'S. (Special to the " Star.”) NEW YORK. June IS. American, British, Dutch. French and Italian airmen will fly planes of a score of types in the most hazardous and longest air race to date, intent on winning the Macßobertscr. prize. For a time it looked as if a rigid interpretation of the race rules by the Royal Aero Club of London might bar from the contest specialised racing ’planes of the type that have put the United States ahead of the rest of the world in long distance speed contests. Negotiation? between the aeronautics branch of the Department of Commerce, together with the National Aeronautic Association and the British Club, However, have made it clear that ’planes of the sort whieli have been granted the socalled ‘Tv” license will be eligible. This means that aircraft such as have won the Bendix Trophy for Colonel Roscoe Turner and Captain James Ilaizlip, the Thompson Trophy for Major James H. Doolittle, the land ’plane speed record for Jimmie Wcdell, and the round-the-world record for Wiley Post, can make the long trek unencumbered. American factories, where speed planes are finished to the last touch of sleekness and where super-charged engines are tuned to the last fraction of horse-power, are busily at work grooming equipment for flyers who have made history under the Stars and Stripes. Colonel Turner, who holds both th-. cast-west and west-east transcontinental records, will fly his Wedell-Williams racer with super-charged Wasp. Taciturn, one-eyed Wiley Post, the iron man of the air. will fly the Winnie Mae, revamped and fitted with controllable pitch propeller. plus additional super-charging for her Wasp engine. Wiley will take it high near the lower stratosphere, and thinks he can get 250 miles an hour cruising monoplane that girded the eartli in lees than eight days/ .

Clyde Pangborn, conqueror of the Pacific, and one of the handful of 10,000hour pilots in the world, will fly a Gee Bee racer, for which the late Z. D. Grenville laid down the specifications shortly before he was killed last January. This ’plane is designed to have a cruising speed of 200 miles an hour and a range of 2000 miles. Harold Gatty, who navigated Post around the world on the Winnie Mae's first trip, has also entered, as have Captain George R. l’ond and Cesare Sabelli, who recently made an Atlantic crossing on a flight to Rome; Captain Alfred J. Lyon. Miss Laura Ingalls and Miss Ruth Nieliolls. Major Alexander P. de Seversky has converted the record-holding amphibian of his own design into a land ’plane, and already has flown it at the rate of 220 miles an hour with a 400 horse-power Wright engine. He will replace this with a 700 horse-power Wright Cyclone, and expects to get better than 250 and a range of 3000 miles. Foreign Pilots in U.S. Ships. American ’planes and engines also will -.erve noted foreign pilots in the great speed race. Air Commodore Sir Charles Kings ford Smith, whose home is “down under,” has purchased a Wasp-powered Lockheed Altair with controllable pitch propeller, which he and a co-pilot will send down the long trek. Colonel James Fitzmaurice, the Irish transatlantic flyer, has ordered from Giuseppe M. Bellanea a special craft with 14-cylinder Wright ?ngine. designed to have a speed of better than 250 miles an hour, and a range of 3500 miles. Like Kingsford Smith and Pangborn, lie will fly with a trusted copilot and press his craft at high cruising night and day. These men say quite lightly that the winner of the race will make the 13,000 miles in two and a half days. An American transport ‘plane has been entered bv the Royal Dutch Air lines, the K.L.M. This Douglas DC2, capable of cruising with full load of 14 'passengers at better than 200 miles an hour on its two Cyclones, will bo a. serious contender, for, by substituting range can be obtained. Moreover, it will bo flown bv K. D. Parmentier, one of the chief pilots of the Dutch line, who knows most of the course like a hook bv reason of the weoklv service which the K.L.M. maintains * between Amsterdam and far-off Batavia in Java. . Tlier e is sti 11 muyli s e c r ecy a bout the

foreign entries, but it is certain that the Germans, with speedy Hainkels, and the* Italians, probably with special Macchi ’planes, will be dangerous dark horses. And the British are building special Do Havillands and other racing ships in an attempt to keep the prize within the British Empire. The Mollisons, Captain James and Amy. will fly, as will other noted English pilots, including A. L. T. Naish. Those who have watched the progress of long-distance speed contests are Strong in the belief, however, that a craft designed in the United States and driven by an American power plant stands an excellent chance of being first to hurtle out of the Australian sky down across the finish line on the ra<*• track at Melbourne.— (N.A.X.A.)