AVIATION NOTES.

Waikato Times, Volume 109, Issue 18346, 4 June 1931, Page 2

AVIATION NOTES.

BY AIR EXPRESS.

THRILLS OF JOURNEY ABOVE EARTH What is it like to make a journey high through the air In the saloon of a big, luxurious modern passengerplane? By way of answering such a question, which is asked so often now-, the writer invites yojj to Join him here, in fancy, in a voyage along that famous air-route between London and Paris In one of the latest-type multiengined flying liners of Imperial Airways. , . „ Free from the dust of earth trafflo you Wing your aerial way, and the panorama spread below you keeps you engrossed from the moment you ascend until —very reluctantlj you step down from your snug saloon at your journey’s end. , Assembling with other passengers at Airways House, London, you are escorted to waiting motor-cars, and driven out to the London air-station at Croydon. Here stands the air express in which you are to embark, while dominating the air-station building you will observe the tower from which the airway traffic is controlled. Here sits the offleer-in- charge, with wireless operators in an instrument-room adjoining, and with a big map in front oi him on which he plots out from moment to. moment, according to the wireless signals he receives, the positions of aircraft in flight. Now you embark in your winged express. The saloon of this craft Is roomy, lofty, spacious. You are given a softly-cushioned armchair, in which you settle yourself luxuriously; anTf, as you do so, a signal from the con-trol-tower tells the pilot he may begin his flight. Promptly he taxies out his ’ big machine and brings it into position so that it is facing into wind. Then he waits for another signal indicating that he may take off. When ths flashes from the tower he opens the throttles of his engines and the big aeroplane runs smoothly forward until its speed is sufficient for its curved wings to bear it aloft in flight. Then, by a gentle movement of his control-wheel, the pilot operates his elevators and the

Express leaves earth for air. The aerodrome buildings appear to' slide away below. You catch a glimpse of the word “Croydon” written in white letters on the aerodrome, while behind—outlined as a rule mistily beneatlj ,its pall of smoke—lies the great city o‘f London. The pilot, setting his machine on a steady climb, heads towards the channel. It Is now that he calls up Croydon on his wireless ’phone and gives the operator in the control-tower a message, indicating that he is en route for Paris. A prominent landmark, after you have left Croydon, is the Crystal Palace away on your left, while immediately ahead lie the Surrey hills. Your big multi-motored 'plane sweeps serenely on and, sitting in your comfortable armchair, you survey the passing earth from a bird’s eye point of view. 'Below, now, there is a wonderful vista of Kent, “garden of England," with its magnificent expanses of pastures, hops, grain, orchards, woods, and park-land. Winding roads look, like little white ribbons, and the motor-cars on them like tiny mechanical toys.

Soon Lympne, coastal air-port, appears ahead with its big hangars, while away to the right lies Dungeness with its light-house and wireless station. Now you pass out above the channel, and the pilot gives Croydon another routine call on his wireless ’phone, informing the control-tower of his exact point of departure from the English coast and of the spot of which he is steering on the French side.

On Its passage above the channel your ’plane passes over the Varne lightship, which has its name clearly painted on its side. Tiny black specks, recognised as ships only by the smoke from their funnels and the wake they leave behind, pass far beneath like toy boats on a pond. Soon Grisnez, on the French coast, is seen a trifle to Rie left, and your winged express approaches Boulogne, with its black breakwater stretching seaward, and its busy docks. After passing Boulogne, you fly parallel with the coast above wonderful stretches of sand. Then the machine turns inland. On the left, now, lies the famous forest of Crecy—a great dark patch on the landscape and a well-known airman’s landmark. Onward from Etaples to Abbeville the air express follows the main railway. Then, from Abbeville the air-line follows the main road, with its typical rows of trees. Looking down, you realise the difference between the landscapes of France and Britain. The French fields are larger; there are few hedges; and most of the roads are straight. Towns and villages are less straggling than illoe of England. Now a belt of forest lies below, and soon afterwards, approaching Paris, the Eiffel Tower,

Pointing Its skeleton finger to the sky, can be picked out ahead and a trifle to the right. Then, quickly, the air-port of Le Bourget, with its many hangars, appears below. The roar of the engines dies away. There is a smooth, wonderful glide earthward, followed by a passing through customs and another motor-car drive into the heart of Paris.

So your ultra-modern journey has been accomplished high above the earth. It has not only been the effortless speed which has so impressed you; it has not only been the feeling of detachment from the turmoil of an overcrowded earth. It has been the sheer fascination of being poised up there, high aloft, and of seeing such vistas of air, sea, and land, as have almost taken your 'breadth away by tho thrill of their unexpected beauty.

FAMOUS BRITISH PILOT. HINKLER IN AMERICA. Bert Hinkler, world famous pilot and holder of many aeronautical records, recently visited the GoodyearZeppelin dock at Akron, Ohio, U.S.A., where the world's largest airship is now under construction for the United Stales Navy, lie was greatly impressed with the Mammoth dock, and 'also with the U.S.A. "Akron," which is scheduled for launching early in the summer of this year. Hinkler recen/Iy designed a new type of airplane known as the Ibis. He has already tested several Ibis ships built in England and he is now in the United States working out plans for the production of Ibis ships there. His purpose in visiting the factories of the Goodyear Tyre and Rubber Gomoanf

was to.make arrangements for equipping his planes with airwheels. Hinkler Is most widply known for his fifteen-day flight from England to Australia in 1928. On this trip lie setfive records: One for elansed time for the England-Australia trip; anotiier for the longest solo flight up to that time; another for the longest flight in a light plane; another f or the fastest flight between Great Britain and India, and a fifth, the competition of the flrst-non-stop flight between London and Rome. As a result of his various recordbreaking flights, Hinkler has received many awards and decorations. In 1920 he was awarded (the “Britannia Trophy” for his non-stop trip from London to Turin, judged the best flight of the year in British Aviation. The Latvia Government awarded him the "Latvian Flying Decoration” for a non-stop flight from London to Riga. In recognition of his Australian flight, Hinkler received the gold medal of the Federation Aeronautique Internationale for the most important flight in 1928. King George bestowed upon him the “Royal Air Force Cross." An air beacon in Australia has been named in his honour. Hinkler went to the States last September and will remain until production begins on his new airplanes.