SHATTERED DREAM

Hokitika Guardian, 4 August 1932, Page 5

SHATTERED DREAM

600 MILES HOURLY t ACROSS TASMAN IN ROCKET.

(Australian Press Association.)

SYDNEY, August 3,

An explosion in iv garage at Roseville, shattered for the time being the dream of two rr.On, Kenneth Foreman and Ernest Fraser, who hoped to fly to New Zealand in a rocket. Tl.e m.'n scaled that they had been experimenting on, explosive propulsion lor a number of yeais, and on perfecting a small model', which was destroyed, intended to build a “man-sized” rocket to cross the Tasman.

Their first model, fired from Woolo:« :oug, landed within six feet of the chosen spot, one of five islands, miles away, claims Foreman.

Fraser, whose eyebio.is we're burned off, explained his ambitious, proposal to-day. He said the rocket-craft was t to be propelled at six hundred miles an hour through the stratosphere it a height of sixy thousand feet. The designer of the rocket) and the inventor of the propelling mixture tvas the science master at a country High School, who had been studying rockets 'and rocket-driven ears. Air Fraser added that when the rocket leaves for New Zealand the occupant will breathe from' special air containers, and through thick plate glass windows he will see the entire North, Island and part of the South Island as far ns Christchurch from his vantage plaint as the rocket hurtles towards its goal. "When within a hundred miles of New Zealand, he said, the rocket would be deflected downwards, the propelling mixture being reduced, and the pilot would descend by a' para-' chute. The rocket, however, instead of careering to d struction, would be brought to earth by means of a time mechanism" and a parachute automatically operated. \ Foremans and Fraser are regarded as - men of .substance) and of , unusual inventive, ability., ...... .