BENEATH THE WINDSOCK

Evening Star, Issue 23378, 22 September 1939, Page 3

BENEATH THE WINDSOCK

by Gypsy moth

A UNIQUE EXPERIENCE. Running into a thunderstorm above Palm Beach, 25 miles from Sydney, the Qantas Empire Airways flying boat Corio was suddenly surrounded by blue flame. 'Simultaneously the sound of an explosion startled the passengers. “'lt was like a shotgun going off,’’ said the pilot (Captain Brain) after the machine had alighted at the Rose Bay airport, Sydney. “It was caused by static electricity in the air. We were coming through the edge of a severe local storm. It gave the passengers a hit of a fright, but they were quickly reassured by one of the crew explaining the phenomenon to them. I had experienced it once before at Singapore,' so knew what .it was. I just smiled. Such a thing might normally happen to * piano once every four nr five years. In . every case reported no damage has been, done to a machine beyond, perhaps, the; fusing of some radio equipment.” ' , . Mr Y. L. Dowling, a Sydney architect, said he was asleep when the machine entered the storm area. “ The noisd of . the explosion woke me, but there was nothing to be frightened of,” ho added. NEW TYPE OF ALTIMETER. ' A device which will give exact height above actual ground is announced by United Air Lines.and Western Electric engineers. .Asserted to be the first successful altimeter showing clearance above the ground, the device operates bv radio, using the shortest wave ever Operated for commercial purposes, and will weigh about 251 b when in production. . . . Following service tests on United, which, is planning to install this device! when' production,, models are available, the new altimeter will.be made available to the industry. The operation involves transmission of a radio signal to earth, reception of the reflection from the earth of the signal,'' the measurement of the elapsed time between the transmission and the reception, and the translation of that into a direct reading ©f altitude in feet from a few feet to a mile. The altimeter, it is stated in the announcement, can be directed forward or at any angle desired to warn pilots should they be nearing higher terrain or obstructions. The device is equipped with a warning light, which is’set so that it flashes on as soon <is the aeroplane goes below a fixed miuimif m'altitude above the terrain. Thus, in .effect, say its sponsors, it is a device which will, give the pilots a realistic “ pict - ”’e ”of the ground below and ahead f the aeroplane, even during comlumiis of m> visibility whatsoever. After testing in the laboratory and in .a, tri-motored research plane, the device was installed on the, flight research Boeing twin-engined airliner of United for .service testing, Fhe absolute altimeter has proved effective under all conditions, the report by United states, «nd,“ is so sensitive that in flying over a, city, for example, the altimeter records the changes in ground terrain clearance caused when the plane flies over a two-story building.” SEVENTY MINUTES AND SEVEN. When Fiona, one of the Frobisher aeroplanes which fly directly between London and Paris, left Le Bourget at 8.45 on the morning of July 25 she followed a course which took her directly orw Calais and Dover. This was the tribal* .of Imperial Airways to the achievement of Louis Bleriot, who, on July 25, flew from the sand dunes at Baraqur, about three miles from Calais, to a field immediately behind Dovw Castle. . Bleriot’s histone flight—from the at I<es Bartqus to the landing Mi ui Dover, Castle—took him about TO minutes. Fiona, commanded by Captain B. H. Yoneil, took seven minutes. if. Bisriot strove against unexpected wind*. He was unable to fly a straight course. For about T) minutes, whan he could not see tao coasts of France or England, he was lost. He oven lost sight of the Escopotte, the French torpedo destroyer which was racing towards Dover at a speed of aboiit 21 knots, Bleriot believed that his top speed was about 424 miles an hour. Fiona crossed the Channel at a speed of 180 miles an hour. She flew low. But Bleriot’s monoplane never rose above 250 ft. Bleriot’s countrymen were ip. the throes o( a Ministerial crisis. The Paris newspapers published the names of the new Cabinet on the day that they announced that Bleriot had conquered the Channel. The Par sums were far more interested in the latter

announcement. On the thirtieth anniversary of Bleriot’s flight bombers ot the Born! Air Force flew over Pans, some of them passing Fiona when she was making her commemorate e night to Croyclon.