HUGE AIR LINERS.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19176, 6 December 1927, Page 11

HUGE AIR LINERS.

ENGLAND TO N.Z. IN 13 DAYS.

AIR MINISTRY'S EXPERIMENTS.

(BRITISH OFFICIAL WIRELESS.)

RUGBY, December 4,

Two gigantic airships which the Air Ministry has been building secretly for the past two years are nearing completion. According to Sir Samuel Hoare, Secretary of State for Air, if the Ministry's experiments are successful the new craft will bring Now Zealand within twelve or thirteen days of England. Sir Samuel Iloare, speaking at Oxford University, said it was hopod that the Ministry's two new airships would be completed some time next year. If the experiments which the Ministry had been conducting for tho last three years succeeded, the new ships would bring Egypt within two days of Engl/'nd, India within four days, Australia within 10 or 11 dayß, and New Zealand within 12 or 13 days. That would bo a great advantage to the British Empire, and to trade and commerce generally. Tho Ministry had embarked definitely upon a long period of research, and was carrying out a series of small-scale experiments. A number of scientists were engaged on tho work, and great progress in the design and knowledge of airships had been made. The Meteorological Office had charted the air between England and India, and had acquired information about air currents that had never been known before.

ENDURANCE PLIGHT.

ANOTHER ATTEMPT FAILS. (AUSTRALIAN AND N.Z. CABLE ASSOCIATION.)

SAN FRANCISCO, December 4,

The Spirit of California, with Captain Kingsford Smith and Lieutenant Georgo Pond aboard, hopped off in a second attempt at an endurance flight at 7.35 this morning. The aeroplane made an excellent getaway, rising in twenty-eight seconds. Weather conditions were reported to be fine, but the airmen returned at 10 8 a.m. Captain Smith, in a radio message, said: "We are .returning to Mills Field. We again encountered bumpy air, resulting in a tail flutter, the same as yesterday. We are going to try again to-morrow."

FURTHER POSTPONEMENT. (AUSTRALIAN AXD N.Z. CABLE ASSOCIATION.) (Received December sth, 10.30 p.m.) SAN FRANCISCO, December 5. Captain Kingsford Smith later reported postponement of the flight until December 11th.

ENGLAND TO SOUTH AFRICA. (AUSTRALIAN AND N.Z AND BUN CABLE.) HELIOPOLIS, December 4. Mr John Carbery, who is flying from England to South Africa, lias landed here.