WEEK-END AIR TRIPS

Hokitika Guardian, 22 May 1920, Page 3

WEEK-END AIR TRIPS

SMALL MACHINES AT LOW COST. CHEATING FLYING IN FUTURE.

A lecture dir ‘Aviation and the Possibilities that await the Development of the Aeroplane” was delivered by Mr F. Handley Page recently in connection ’ w ith the London County Council’s series of lectures on scientific subjects ' for teachers. Mr Handley Page pointed out that during the war economy in the cost of running played no part in the design. “But since the war is over and’peaee has broken out,” said Mr Page, wo have had to contend with running a service at a cost commensurate with the number of passengers, and at a price that is low enough for their pocket or to carry goods, and our attention has been directed to finding a means whereby economy can be improved and the cheapness of machines increased, and I am pleased to say that w e hayo had very successful results in that direction. _ “Our experiments have been directed to finding out whether it would not be possible to fly with smaller ’planes,, and ofio of our interesting discoveries indi- . cates that we shall he able to use ’planes of at least half the size of the , present nPea.” Experiments showed that they would he able to land slower * with* these smaller machines, and that 'with 25 h.p. instead of 100 h.p. , they would he able to fly with' pilot and passenger and with enough petrol and oil for five hours at a. speed'of 100 to 110 miles an hour. Such a machine would cost from £l5O to £2OO. “Which \means,” said Mr ! .Page, “that we shall be able to 'get a small machine that you can put perhaps in the coalshed, and drag it out on a fine Sunday afternoon, so as to take your own, or somebody else's, ‘best girl’—l was going to say to Paris, but to any destination that you choose —and have a range of 500 miles at a cost no greater than that of running a small motor-car.” The price of flying from London to Paris will ho eomparablo in the future, said the leaturer, to travelling of omnibus from the Bank to Charing Cross, though it will he a long time ahead vet as at present we have only the old type of machines smaller in size and cheaper in cost and running. There can be no doubt said Mr Page, that an appeal will be mad© to-day. With the possibility of having a cheap machine, by which one could he in Paris in the afternoon, and at a cost no greater than driving a small car, though at a speed many time's in excess, the prospects were very alluring. “With the enormous production of motor-cars here and in America and other places,” said the lecturer, “the day is not far distant when it will be impossible to move along the roads; and there will he only one thing left to do if von want to go anywhere, and

that is to travel by air. So that those i who are far-seeing and wish to travel % in the future will be now turning their thoughts very attentively not to purchasing an aeroplane, but to getting accustomed to new means of travelling.” *