AVIATION

Hokitika Guardian, 8 December 1931, Page 5

AVIATION

NEW SAFETY DEVICE DOUBLE-CASE PLANE. (United Press Association—By jfileetric Telegraph —Copyright.) LONDON, December 7. A young French aviator, Souvant, of Nice, has invented a double-cased aeroplane, which he intends to ignite and crash to earth, accompanied by a mechanic, from a height of three thousand feet in the AJpes Maritimes. Souvant declares that ’the occupants can escape uninjured from the inner case of the plane when the fire is extinguished. He has made satisfactory experiments wjth a miniature machine, in which he placed a lamb. He has also dropped an ostrich egg, containing a hen’s egg, a distance of 375 feet. The latter was unbroken.

SMITH IN INDIA. CALCUTTA, December 7. Kingsford Smith has arrived here. AUSTRALIAN DIRECTOR. TRAVELS BY DUTCH PLANE. MELBOURNE, December 7. (A massage .received 'by the Civil Aviation Department says that Co'lonol ißritisni'ead joinied a Dutch air mail plan©, with the object of reporting to Kingsford Smith on the condition of the aerodromes between Alorstar and Rangoon, The Dutch machine was a Fokker Fl2 monoplane with three Wasp engines. Officials of the Australian Air Department express ' the opinion that Colonel Brinsmead was probably invited by the Dutch authoritys to hasten onward to England aboard their craft.

The Prime Minister’s Department has cabled for .the fullest, information as to Colonel Brinsmead's accident.

PLANE AS AMBULANCE. LADY TAKEN TO HOSPITAL. WELLINGTON,' December 7. Because a Kaikoura resident required an urgent operation, a Puss Moth plane of the New Zealand Air Force was called into US'S and brought her to Rongotai this 5 afternoon. •Shortly afterwards she was in the private hospital in -Wellington. Neither the Wellington Aero Club nor the Canterbury Aero Club had a machine .suitable, so the Defence Department was approached, with the result that Squadron Leader Findlay left Wig-ram Aerodrome for Kaikoura, where he picked up the patient. He then fl'-w to Wellington, arriving ' at Rongotai. Airport at 2 p.m. The free ambulance was awaiting the arrival of the machine, having been informed that the patient was coming, and she was immediately taken to the private hospital.

HINKLER AT LONDON. RECEIVES STIRRING WELCOME. (Received this day at 9.25 a.m) IjONDON, December 7. Bert Hinkler arrived at Hanworth aerodrome where a stirring welcome awaited him.

DUTCH MAIL SMASH. COLORED BRINSMEAD’S INJURIES (Received” this day at 8 a.m.) SINGAPORE, December 7. Later details of the Dutch mail ’plane crash indicate that the tragedy was due to the considerable Christmas mail which had been unheld. Floods had made the" ground soft owing to rains.

The ’plane arrived from Alorstar on Saturday afternoon with Colonel Br,insmead as a passenger. On Sunday morning the same ’plane made unsuccessful attempts to rise, and taxied for a mile across the aerodrome end 0 f the field where two canals bordered the field, the embankments being several feet high.

It appears that the pilot made a final effort to lift- the ’plane which rose f o r about three feet over the canal, hut the wheels collided with the embankment and the ’plane nose dived on to a ricefield with such force that the motors were forced into the cabin, killing outright a French city engineer, of Bangkok, a Dutch commercial traveller, the second pilot and a mechanic*. The ground staff .immediately rushed to the scene, and Colonel Brismead was extricated from the wreckage suffering from serious injuries and was unconscious. The first pilot was extricated but he subsequently died. Colonel Brinsmead’s condition is critical. Kingsford Smith arrived five hours later and proceeded to Rangoon. This is the first serious accident which has overtaken the Dutch mail service since its inception over two veais ago. The mileage covered is 833,000-

SOUTHERN STAR CARRIES ON. CALCUTTA, December 7. The Southern Star, with the rescued Christinas mail left for Allahabad at 1.5 p.m. on Sunday and hopes to reach London by next Sunday.