SCHNEIDER CUP

Hokitika Guardian, 15 August 1929, Page 6

SCHNEIDER CUP

THE BRITISH MACHINES Official Wireless,) RUGBY, Aug. 12. At Calsliot near Southampton the team which will represent Great Britain in the race for the Schneider Trophy have been in training for some months, practising on GloucesterNapier biplanes and the snpermarine S 5 machine which won the race two years ago. Four ne\v machines have been built by order of the Air Ministry, two Gloucester Napier No. 6 monoplanes and two Supermarine Rolls lloyce S 6 machines and three of these will represent Great Britain in the race. Vital facts regarding the new machines are strictly guarded secrets. The first tests were made to-day with one of the supermarine S 6 machines. The pilot was Squadron-Leader Orlp T bar, who is in command of the High Speed Flight, as the officers selected to compete for the Schneider Trophy are called. In his tests Squadron-Lead-er Orlebar attained great speeds. No official indication was given of what lie had done, but it was estimated that he had approached 300 miles an lioup. Eixperts who were watching were well satisfied with the demonstration.-They declared that the Italian and American machines would have to have a good deal of reserve speed to win back the coveted Schneider Trophy from Great Britain.

J * OVER 300 MILES AN HOUR. , (Received this dav at 10.30. a.m.) LONDON, August 14. Piloting Britain’s mystery plane 6 V. over the Schneider Cup course, Squadron Loader Orlebar several times exceeded three hundred miles an hour. SOME PARTICULARS. This will be the tenth Schneider L'rophy contest. Great Britain won in i 914, 1922, and 1927; the United States won in 1923 and 1925; Italy won in 1920, 1921 and 1926; and France in 1913. For tiie permanent retention of the trophy it is necessary to secure three wins in five consecutive contests. The contest in 1924 was declared off, and since 1927 it has been decided to hold it every two years. It follows, therefore, that the United States can, py winning tills year, hold the trophy tor ever. i The race will be held in the Solent, the course consisting of several laps, amounting to a total distance of about miles over a quadrangular course, in former . years .a triangular '©burse, with acute-angles, has been the custom; but it is desired to obviate extremely slnirp turns: The race is-field in British waters this year, because Great Britain is the holder of the crophy through her victory at Venice in 1927, when fliglit-Lieutenant Webster, on the Supermarine-Napier gg^ averaged a speed of 281.7 miles per hour. In that contest only two machines finished, the other being a British seaplane, a Supermarine-Napier, flown oy Flight Lieutenant Worsley. In 1927 Italy, the then holder of the Cup, was the only other nation competing. In this year’s contest it was anticipated that four nations would ue represented: Great Britain, Italy and France, each with three machines, and the United States, with one machine. But, the death of the French pilot, Bonnet, has caused the withdrawal of tiie French entry. THE COMPETITORS. Flight-Lieutenant D D’Arcy Guild, who was in command of the British Schneider Cup team, unfortunately suffered an injury to his eye last May that definitely incapacitated him. Flight-Lieu-enant Greig, although not the holder of, the world seaplane record, has flown a timed course at a speed of 319£ miles an hour. This exceeded tiie record speed made by De Bernardf, but not by a sufficient margin to count as a new record.

Flight-Lieutenant 0. E. Worsley, who flew in the last contest, is expected to pilot 'the Super-marine So seaplane, and Flying-Officer Schofield has also been mentioned as one of the British team.

The. Italian entrant for the trophy is Major De Bernardi, who holds the seaplane speed record with a speed of 318 J miles per hour. The seaplane he used is a new transformed Macchi 52, designed by the engineer, Mario Castoldi, of the Maachi firm at Yaresse, who was the designer of the machines previously employed by De Bernardi. The motor is an improved Fiat-Sulzer 8, designed by the engineer Tranquillo Zerbi, of the Fiat firm, who made technical studies in Zurich and Mannheim, and who for the last nine years has been the Fiat specialist for aeroplane motors. The motor used by De Bernardi when lie won the Schneider Trophy in America, and that which he again used in 1927, were designed by Signor Zerbi. It is a twelve-cylinder, V-type, Avater-cooled engine. The nominal horse-power is 850 h.p. and, at the maximum, may reach h.p.

The most interesting feature of the American machine is its 24-cylinder engine ,with four blocks of six cylinders each, arranged in the form of an' X. Bench tests have shown it to be capable of generating 1500 h.p. and a speed of 350 miles an hour is hoped for. The Packard Company, which has built the engine, is also making experiments with Diesel engine designs, and claims to have increased the efficiency of this type of power unit, so that.it weighs less than 3lb. per horse power.