FLYING VENTURE

Evening Post, Volume CXIV, Issue 122, 19 November 1932, Page 12

FLYING VENTURE

ATTACK ON EVEREST

THE MEN AND MACHINES

INTENSIVE TRAINING

(From ''The Post's" Representative.) ' LONDON, 13th October. ■ Flying men have never planned a more picturesque endeavour than the assault on Mount Everest' which—if negotiations now in progress are carried through—will be made by British pilots within the next few months. Everest rises 29,000 feet above sealevel. The world's height record, established last month by Mr. Cyril TJwins in a British biplane, is 43,976 feet, nearly three miles higher than the summit. But the mountain lies remote j in the heart of a terrific range of | peaks, many of which rival it in stature, in a region, where - a forced landing would mean destruction' and where there blow winds of hurricane force. Further, the head of the giant is the home of tremendous storms, and i vast frozen cloud masses shroud the peak from view for many months of the year. The men who take off from an aerodrome in Northern Bengal at the foot of the great hills to conquer Everest will mow that they are beginning one of the; most perilous adventures in the history of aviation. The chief pilot of the expedition is the Marquess of Douglas and Clydesdale,, M.P., a. squadron leader in the Auxiliary Air Force, and a well-known amateur boxer. Lady ■ Houston' is providing the financial sinews. The Air Ministry and the India Office arc according the expedition hearty support, and the Maharaja ..of Nepal, within whose territory the mountain stands, has given his permission for the flight over the summit. Lord Clydesdale and his comrades have made careful plans, and, while recognising the perils before them, believe in their own ability, linked with the trustworthiness of their flying equipment, to overcome them.

A period of intensive training and flying trials^ must' precede embarkation for India.- Each member of the party must attain the perfection of physical fitness to withstand the ardours of flying above .* the Himalayas. ■ Aeroplanes and engines must be perfectly attuned to the task; there will be no room for a single mechanical failure. Indeed, only the astonishing dependability attained in recent years by the British aero - engine puts the enterprise within the limits of reasonable endeavour. ■'"'-.■ .'■'■■■

The. aeroplane most i obviously fitted for the flight is the high-flying Viekers "Vespa" craft powered'with a Bristol "Pegasus" motor which Mr. Uwins took to the stratosphere when he set the new world's aeroplanp height record. Negotiations are going forward to secure the use of thig machine, and per-: haps of another craft of similar performance. At the moment.no definite announcement is possible.

Two aeroplanes are likely to ascend together, one to make the actual flight over the summit and the other to take a photographic record of the attempt, an obvious difficulty being that of securing adequate evidence that the peak is actually flown over. Both machines will carry cameras, ana it is hoped that the record thus obtained, will place the success of .the expedition beyond the range of scepticism. The flyers will" wear specially heated clothing of the kind worn by Mr. Uwins on his recent flights above 40,000. feet, and they will breathe through oxygen apparatus. Coupled with the preliminary flying trials, or perhaps preceding theta, may be an attempt, by Mr. Uwins to reach a height still, greater than that now officially recognised as the world's record. He is confident that his aeroplane can climb two thousand or more feet higher .than it has'yet done: