SPEED RIVALRIES.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXII, Issue 4360, 30 December 1921, Page 4

SPEED RIVALRIES.

’PLANES AND TRAINS* ENGLAND AND FRANCE. Flight at a speed of 212 miles an hour is a tremendous advance pn the pioneer 37 miles an hpur of Wilbur Wright a brief thirteen years ago. In October a 300-kilometre course, equal, roughly, to about 200 miles, was covered by a French airman, Kirsch, at 175 miles an hour. Sladi Lecointe's 205 miles an hour was, however, a considerable advance op that, and it is interesting to note that the new record of 212 miles has been estabi lished in England, and, presumably, by a British airman. The French have been to the fore pf late in highspeed flying, and they have a number of airmen possessing great skill in handling their machines at terrific rates.. From the accounts of eye-wit-nesses it seems that aeroplanes flying at great speeds do not appear to the observer to-be moving fast. For instance, a layman would imagine that a motor-car at 60 miles an hour could easily keep pace with an aeroplane that was in reality moving at about 200 miles an hour. If the French have been to the fore in aid: speeds of late, Britain still remains supreme on land. The Great Western Railway has been speeding up its trains, and now runs an express fr'pm Paddington to Bath that covers the 107 miles in 105 minutes from start to stop. At . times on the run a speed of 83 miles an hour is reached ,and this train is claimed to-day as the fastest in the world. Against an air speed of 212 miles an hour, the train, however, seems a snaiMike thing.