FLIGHT OVER LONDON.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 16430, 25 January 1919, Page 12

FLIGHT OVER LONDON.

1 "THE BERLIN BOMBER." • (most OCR OWN COERESFONDISN-T.) LONDON, November 19. During tlie fateful clays a week ago whon the Germans were considering the terms of armistice, and tlio Allied armies wero threshing along from line to lino and from town to town, there was one thought predominant in the minds of, all civilians. The peace was by now taken for granted, hut one and all, young men and maidens, old men and women, breathed aloud the truculent prayer, "i only hope they 11 drop a few bombs on Berlin before . thej stop." It was a popular conviction that they would, and so undoubtedly thev would, but the super-raider, xhe Berlin bomber, was three days too lato in completion. T had" a flight in her a few days ago, with forty others, male and female, creating an easy world's record in passenger carrying. Sho is a IlandloyPace, with a spread of 127 feet and four Rolls Eoyce engines aggregating 1400 horse-power, and I went up in her straight from the hands of the mechanics. A tremendous creature she looked, as with wings folded back againit her sides like a locust, she was dragged slowly across the ground by a fioiemn little tractor. The aeroplane herself weighs 7 a tons, and carries nearly 1000 gallons o petrel, which would have been ample to take lior to Berlin and back to the British lines. "When fully loaded with bombs her total weight is lu tons, ana it is astonishing with what ease she rises from her forerunners and skims up into the air. It was not until the journey was over that any of us were aware that the number of people on board, including the pilot, totalled: forty-one. \Vliero X was in a machine-gunner s post, all that could be seen wore two passengers in a similar post m the tail and one or two heads m the pilot s cockpit. Below me was a platform and a chamber capable of holding altogether about thirty people, most ot whom could got a vie-.v eithor through the apparatus at the bottom or through the micre windows at the sido of tho chamber. . J . . It only took a few minutes of circling over the aerodrome to riso to a Jieigiifc of 6500 ft, at which altitude the clouds far below look like a sea. For hnlf-an-liour wo cruised about over London, getting good views of the city and of a small stream which wo knew was the Thames, although at that altitude it looked no larger than the Avon in Christchurch. \Ve had enough petrol to go to Paris and back, but it was alreadv getting dark whon wo wont up, and the pilot could only find his way back by means of a flare on tho aerodrome. The journey was quite uneventful. The Handley-Pago travels almost without wobbling at all, tho great spread of wing neutralising any small gusts of air. The trip was a demonstration of the wonderful accuracy and reliability of modern industry. Beyond the sectional inspections which are very minute, the finished machine had no test at all, and yet it went up into the air with complete confidence. New Zealand's special interest in these machines lies in the fact that Sir Joseph "Ward has already made full enquiries as to the prospects of carrying mails by thein. Mr Page tells mo that one of tho smaller machines, which until this one appeared were the biggest in the world, will carry comfortably three or four tons of mail matter. The real value of tho aeroplano is over distances of 200 or 300 miles or more. For short distances it is hardly necessary. At tho samo time, if it goes to drop mails at way stations, Mr Pago considers that the trouble is so little that tho machine might as well alight. On alighting from our excursion into the clouds tho passengers were counted and weighed, and it was found that the load was only Go22lbs, which is not half what tho maehino is capable of carrying. It is expected that within a fow weeks a trip will be made to Paris with passengers. Our pilot was an American, Mr Clifford Prodger, and amongst the passengers wero several oversea Press correspondents, Lord Lisburn, some ladies, and a mechanic, who was taken for luck.