SCHNEIDER TROPHY.

Waikato Times, Volume 105, Issue 17786, 10 August 1929, Page 21 (Supplement)

SCHNEIDER TROPHY.

PLANS FOR COMING RACE. Foreign teams visiting England in i order to take part in the Schneider ! Trophy contest next September will ! be given accomimodation at Calshot ' Seaplane Station, at the entrance to j Southampton Water (writes the avia- ! tion correspondent of the Dally Telej graph). Here the British team is al- : ready at work, but about the beginI ning of August the flying boat squadI rons permanently stationed’at Calshot | will cruise round the coast to Leu- ! chars, in Scotland, there to undergo j certain exercises in co-operation wilh i units stationed at Leuchars. Their de- | parture will make room at Calshot for | the visitors. I Calshot Seaplane Station will then jbe almost entirely given over to Schneider - Trophy preparations, and since these will arouse great interest all over the world, the Post Office has decided to set up a special office on tho spot to enable the numerous newspaper correspondents who will assemble there to despatch messages wilh a minimum of inconvenience. It is expected that nearly 200 press representatives from all over the world will attend. Each visiting team will contain at least 30 men, including pilots and mechanics, and with Italy, France, and possibly tlie United States represented, Calshot during the two or three weeks before the race will be a scene of great activity. Royal Air Force officers with language qualifications will I*3 attached to the teams as liaison officers and interpreters. On the day before the speed race competing machines will go through navigability and watertightness tests off the Isle of Wight, and on that day interest will be transferred to the course over which the race will be flown, to Osborne Bay, in which the preliminary tests will be held, and to Hyde, off which will be the starting and finishing line. In addition to the Schneider Trophy contest, there will be others of great interest at the time. Portsmouth Xr.vy Week will be held, and for the first lime the public will be permitted to visit aircraft carriers. Several Royal Aero Club sub-com-mittees arc engaged on business in

connection with the race. One of the most important, and one on which a big responsibility will lie, wall have to decide whether the race shall take place or he postponed. Such postponements are only permissible on account of unsuitable weather, and only from day to day. Special knowledge of local conditions safe for racing craft which “land” at 100 miles per hour is necessary, and neither the local sailor, the land aeroplane expert, nor the admiral of tlie port is qualified.