AVIATION

Hokitika Guardian, 23 October 1929, Page 6

AVIATION

A GREAT FLIGHT. ' A HISTORIC" ADVANCE. (United Press Association. —ByElectrio Telegraph.—Copyright.) FRIEDRICHS,HAVEN, OctV '2l. The flight of Dox marked a'great advance in aviation history. The twelve British Jupiter engines roaring as a single unit sped the giant across Lake Constance, tearing the waters into form, and she rose gracefully in fifty seconds. The seaplane cruised for an hour at first at a speed of a hundred miles hourly towards the distant skyline of the snow-crowned alps, thence circling towards Friedrichshaven, above the Graf zeppelin hangar. The pilot’s varied the altitudes from one hundred to three hundred feet, the greatest being 500. The flight covered 110 miles. The fuel was sufficient for three hundred. The total weight was fifty-two tons*of which the passengers and cargo fill seventeen tons. Meanwhile eighty passengers were comfortably seated in leather armchairs in the main saloon.

BIG GERMAN ’PLANE. LONDON, October 21. ... Referring to the flight of the Dox seaplane at Lake Constance, Mr Turner, writing in the “Daily Telegraph,” works out the pj-aeticable load of the plane as being eleven tons, or twenty per cent of the gross load. He says that in the course of a six hours’ flight—which should be regarded as the minimum—the plane’s engines would consume.,seven tons of, fuel, thereby leaving only four tons for the passengers and ■ crew, or. a total personnel of sixty-five. AIRSHIP R.lOl. LONDON, Oct. 21. The airship R.lOl was released from the mooring mast and safely regrou'nded at Oardington this afternoon, as a precaution against a heavy gale. The task occupied four hundred men for two hours.