AVIATION.

Hokitika Guardian, 19 October 1927, Page 2

AVIATION.

LAustraJan Press Association & Sun, STEAM PLANES. LONDON, Oct. 17. Captain W. P. Durtnall, an engineer, claims to have invented.a steam turbine for aeroplanes which will he more economical and more powerful than the existing motors. He says that the apparatus is lighter than the petrol motoi's and that it eliminates the risk of fire, and also the noise. Tlio steam heats the cabin, and also provides heat for aerial cooking. Captain Durtnall states that a steam piano could fly three times the distance of the present planes without descending to fuel. The turbine could generate five hundred horse power, and it would attain a height of from thirty to fifty thousand feet. The exhaust steam, he says, could he used again and again without condensing it. Tlio engine requires onlyten gallons of water per thousand horse power. DISTANCE FLIERS. LONDON, Oct. 17. Captain Macintosh is preparing to leave Upavon in a Fokker plane this week on a non-stop flight of four thousand miles to the Far East. Every available inch in the plane will be devoted to petrol, 750 gallons of which is sufficient for a flight of forty-five hours. LANCASTER’S PROGRESS. PARIS, Oct. 18. Captain Lancaster and Mrs Miller left Lyons at 11.20 o’clock and arrived at Marseilles at 1.4 p.m. They will proceed to Pisa in the morning. A BRAZILIAN TRAGEDY. RIO DE JANIF.RO, Oct. 17. Throe Brazilian aviators were killed during an aerial parade in honour of the newly-arrived French aviators, who flew the South Atlantic. The three airmen were flying at a tremendous pace four hundred feet above the water when they overturned. The plane dropped, bursting into flames.