DESIGNERS PREDICTIONS

Hokitika Guardian, 23 May 1931, Page 5

DESIGNERS PREDICTIONS

ENGLAND TO AUSTRALIA IN A DAY. [United Press Association—By Electric !e legr ap h —Co py righ t. ] LONDON, .May 22. "1 am certain that within the lifetime of our ymigsters, we will have the aeroplane to fly to Australia in twenty-fotir hours,” said the pioneer commenting on the reports of a machine that is being built in America to cross the Atlantic in seven bonus, lie said that the .Junkers Coy. in Germany were working on a machine to fly seven hundred miles an hour. lie continued: Elying at enormous speeds miles above the earth, is not a mere dream, since it involves only technical improvements and the development of special engines to operate at high altitudes. Britain should be well ahead in this direction. Our Sehnider Cup and other activities are all advancing f> a time when this high altitude high spend ilying will he achieved .

AEROPLANE CATAPULT*

LONDON, .May 2i

The aeroplane catapult siioots an aeroplane forward like a shell from a gun. The aeroplane is attached to a cable ,which winds round a fixture one hundred yards away and hack i Hm catapult drum. Tile aeroplane is thus shot forward on a wheeled carriage at such a momentum as to nunhip it. tp rise majestically info tne sky.

r l he object of the machine is to assist giant aeroplanes, which have difficulty in rising with a heavy load, but which nevertheless they can carry die loads easily once they are airborne. Jhe catapult i. s held down on a concrete bed, hut. it is mobile. It can lie taken and used anywhere. There are on hundred yards of a nmwav.