AIR RECORDS BROKEN

Waikato Times, Volume 91, Issue 14241, 16 December 1919, Page 7

AIR RECORDS BROKEN

REMARKABLE CHANNEL TRIPS. SPELLBOUND M.P. In & Dc HitVllland, or Alrco 4a, aeroplane In September, Mr Edward Price Dell, London correspondent of the Chicago Daily News, won fchrec world's flying records. i. The fa»test flight over made by n Journalist from London to Paris, 1 hour and 50 minuted over a route Of 270 inilea, or more than 135 miles an hour. 2 The fastest double flight evit made by a Journalist between London and Paris, 3 hours and 53 minutes over a route of 5->0 miles, or more- than two miles a m tile. 3 The i\»..\est double flight ever made by a;;., passenger between London and Paris, 3 hours and 58 minutes.

Writing of his experiences, Mr B?ll said:

If Journalism holds the London-t.o-

Paris aorlal speed record it shares this record with statesmanship, for Mr Lewis, Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Education, was my companion on the i hour and 50 minutes London-to-Paris llighit. Statesmanship, however, failed to secure a share in the record double flight, as neither Mr Lewis nor any other statesman flew back. My fellow-traveller on the return trip was a young Swiss journalist, Mr Albert Hcider, Paris correspondent of the National Zertung, of Bale. Our pilot going out was Lieutenant A. C. Campbell-Orde, and returning Lieutenant G. B. Powell, R.A.G., men to whose friendliness, modesty, nerve, ami skill one would wish to pay an enthusiastic tribute. Our journey to Paris was an affair of squalls, ri'ted clouds, sunbursts, and views of unimaginable loveliness. Experts said that only the heaviest machines should fly, but we flew, and we were relatively small. Borne up and, on by its 360-h.p. Rolls Royce engine, our plane breasted every gust, climbed out of every packet, rode every ridge of air, and rushed unwaveringly forwards, apparently with abundant power to s^are. England Seen With New Eyes.

Mr Lewis is an Englishman, quiet o! speech, ardent of nature. I sllenll> watched him—one could not mak. oneself heard above the din of lh< engine—peering down, first on one side, then on the other,'a settled smile on his face. Suddenly looking at me, he shouted at the top of his voice, uttering each word separately. I shook my head. Presently he drew out a bit of paper and a lead pencil, wrote something, and handed it to me. It read: "I have seen England for the first time*"

Waves ran riot in the Channel, for thcrq was a strong south-west wind. To us, 2000 feet up, these waves die. not look high. Their surface, wearing the appearance of beaten metal, whitened as far as the eye could see witr. dissolving foam. .Numerous ships, warships, and cargo-boate, were throwing out plumes of smitten sea | and sedately tumbling with the motion of the water. Absorbed, Mr Lewis and I almost forgot th« bumpings of our own eraft, as it sped southwards across the wind. Returning over a route of 25* miles practically the crow-line from Le Bourget aerodrome to Hounslow aerodrome, covered in two hours and eigh'l minutes, we were held back by rainsqualls and low-flying clouds, our speed ranging from 100 to 130 miles an hour. Our progress over France at a height of 1000 fecit, was undo: thin clouds, in palo sunshine, and will: a moderate wind. Our first stirring episode developed when we were approaching the English coast, which, by the way, we ha<. remarked distinctly while the waves yet were frilling France with foam beneath us. Huge clouds floated oul over the Channel from above the cliff: of Dover and Folkestone. They came in isolated masses, and through the spaces between wc could descry an apparently Illimitable host pressing seawards from the land. Our machine lifted her nose, the engine took on a deeper roar, and we speedily left the 1000 feet level Before me, on a tiny table, the needs of a height-meter moved from 1000 feet to 2000 feet, and finally to 3000 feet, our speed in the climb falling from 115 to 80 miles an hour.

Blind in the Air

We had surmounted the vapoury avalanche and were in pellucid air, with Dover, Folkestone, and the coasl blotted out. Looking back, we seemed to behold a world of snowy mountain ranges hurled from their bases and rolled into space by some titanic earth convulsion. Nor were the valleys wanting. Here and there we could sec through the distant patches of water like frozen lakes in a cloud-Arctic. Mr Heider was shouting; I could not hear; I knew only that the movement of his lips said, "Wonderful! wonderful! wonderful!"

In the twinkling of an eye we cleared the clouds, and green England's splendour Droke below. Our machine tobogganed 2000 feet and we headed straight for London. Blasts of wind, beating upon the plane's nose and whistling among her wings, struts, and stanchions caused us continually to bank and quiver. But Lieutenant Powell held her to 'her course superbly. Our next and last real thrill occurred in the valley south of the North Downs near Scvenoaks. Low clouds had forced us to within 100 ft. of the ground. Lieutenant Powell,knew the Downs were at least 800 feet high, and their summits were wrapped in cloud. We mounted steeply, piercing a mist as white as snow and as dense as wool. For a quarter of an hour, so far as seeing anything but mist was concerned, we were blind. Then knowing by his speedometer that he had passed the Downs, our pilot steered gradually earthwards. Wo sighted tree-iops, then meadows, then hazy, immeasurable London, with the sinuous Thames on our right and the sprawling hangars of* Hounslow aerodrome on our left. We landed sweetly in a drenching rain in the midst of a gob-lin-like group of mechanics in black oil-skins.