AERIAL FREAK.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 222, 19 September 1928, Page 7

AERIAL FREAK.

NEW AUTOGIRO. " Windmill" 'Plane Makes Good Flight. IMPROVED DESIGN. (Australian and X.Z. Press Association.> LONDON, September 13. The aviation expert of the "Daily Telegraph" describes a flight from Southampton to Croydon in a new "windmill" autogiro, invented by Senor Don Jaan de la Cierva. He says: The new machine bears nc relationship whatever to the aeroplane the airship or the balloon. It is a vast improvement on the autogiro of 1925 One feels that it is safe and it adds tc the enjoyment of flying. The machine has four propeller-like blades which rotate on an almost vertical mast. It can take off after on« minute's preliminary spin, the slowness of which will later be rectified by in creasing the .power of the starting gear. The "windmill" takes care of itseli in the air, leaving the pilot free to concentra le on his course and on the engine The machine landed at Croydon slowlj and vertically, without a jar and with out moving more than two yards. Tht flight was made at a speed of 110 mile: an hour. The machine probably will be able to land on the deck of an ordin ary steamer. MOST REVOLUTIONARY. CROSS CHANNEL AT 100 M.P.H (Australian and N.Z. Press Association.) (Received 2 p.m.) LONDON, September 18. Aviation critics in Britain and Franc* agree that de la Cierva's autogiro is th( mast revolutionary aeronautical develop ment of recent years. It is described a: a windmill because, instead of wings like an aeroplane, it has foro horizontally rotating vanes. Its crosschannel flight is described as important as that of Bleriot's in 1909. The autogiro reached Cape Grisne: one hour after leaving Croydon Descents were voluntarily made at St Inglevert and Abbeville for refreshment instead of making a single hop fron Croydon to Paris, where 2000 people welcomed the inventor after a four minute descent so vertical that the machine did not move three yards whei it landed. De la Cierva in a statement said tht flight was the greatest experience of a lifetime. He found no trouble control ling either the height or speed of the machine, which rose to an altitude oi 600 metres in three minutes and averaged 100 miles an hour during the flight

FLEET OF 'PLANES.

To Supplement Singapore Naval Base. REARING CONSTRUCTION. (Australian Presa Assn.—United Service.) (Received 12 noon.) LONDON, September 18. A fleet of Blackburn Iris (RollsRoyce) flying boats, the most powerful ever constructed in Britain, are now nearing completion and will be brought to Yorkshire and used to equip the Empire air base at Basra, which will supplement that at Singapore in assisting the Navy to patrol «the trade routes. TRIAL FLIGHT. GIANT GERMAN ZEPPELIN. (Australian Press Assn.—United Service.) (Received 12 noon.) LONDON, September 18. At Friedrichshafen the new giant Zeppelin LZI27 held a trial flight over Lake Constance. She flew at a height of 300 feet and used petrol. She Was accompanied by aeroplanes. The flight was made amid cheers from thousands of spectators and the pealing of church bells.