AVIATION

Hokitika Guardian, 28 April 1930, Page 5

AVIATION

’■SMITH. AND SHIERS.

PLANE DISABLED, IN SIAM

(Australian Press Association)

MELBOURNE, April 27

A message from Bangkok, in Siam states that the Australian flyers Smith and Shiers, in their plane, City of Sydney, have been forced down in rough country thirty miles from the Siamese capital. The men are unhurt but a wing of the plane is broken and the flight may be abandoned. The plane was unable to take off fully loaded from -Singora, on the Malay East Coast, owing to the aerodrome’s limited space. It, therefore, had to start with minimum load, which proved insufficient to reach Bagkolc.

A CHEAP TOUR. • LONDON, April 27

Nine amateur aviators arrived back after a 10-dav tour of Europe. They visited Paris, Vienna, Prague, Rome. Berlin, and Amsterdam, flying 3000 miles, at an average cost of oil and petrol of only £2O sterling, the cheapest travel they had known.

FRENCH AIR SUBSIDY 7 . PARIS, April 27

The Air Ministry announced in order to provide a reserve of trained aviators, it was willing to pay half the cost and maintenance of privately owned aeroplanes, built in France.

AIR SPEED MAKERS. LONDON,. April 2

An aeroplane capable of flying three-quarters of the distance to Australia non-stop, is on the verge -of completion in France. It is designed by the famous Louis Bleriot and ifan irn'mense monoplane, more perfectly streamlined than any others existing. The flying craft weight is so lessened tha it can ascend with a tremendous load of petrol. Meanwhile, so rapid is the general improvement ol aircraft that liiitisl >air circles confidently -predict tin phenomenal speed of seven miles ; minute.

British seaplanes are at present undergoing modiliealions ior the approaching tests. A speed of lour hundred miles an hour is eeufidonth anticipated. II this speed can be al lied with Bleriot’s petrol carrier, it would mean that the Australian coast could be reached from London in little more than twenty-four hours.