HIGH SPEED PLANES

Opotiki News, Volume II, Issue 205, 10 July 1939, Page 1

HIGH SPEED PLANES

LIMIT UNDER 600 M.P.H. VIEWS OF EXPERTS TESTS IX BRITAIN The "difficulty ' of accurate measurement (if high speeds by aeroplanes, other than m point-to-point flights, 1 makes technicians regard with reserve all reports of level or diving speeds in the 'neighbourhood of O<J5 miles an hour, such- as have been widely claimed recently lor a new foreign lighter, states the: Society of British Aircraft Constructors, Limited, in an official statement. “Diving speeds exceeding 500 miles an hour are part of the normal , test routing of standard' British fighter aircraft before going into the Royal Air Force;” the statement says. ‘‘Eivitlenee of the speeds obtainable by the much more powerful military aeroplanes is provided by the recent flight of a new trainer, the Miles Master L, .which is the fastest trainer vet to got into production in the world:: .One. of these aeroplanes, fitted with a Rolls R-oyce Kestrel hquidc Go led engine, lias just flown 42 .miles from Oxford to Farnborough in five minutes, averaging 5C4 miles an hour. “Squaclrdii-Leacler Gil lan, pilot of the Jdawket Hurricane single-seat lighter; which averaged 4Ud miles an hour on the famous night flight from Edinburgh to London, lias revealed that in the later stages of his journey, and-while descending from 17,()00ft., he was sometimes moving over the ground at no less than 550 m.p.h. “Fast flights of this kind made with tlu> help of the' wind and full engine throttle, open up the. fascinating question of the limit of speed m flight. Exports assessing the question Ire m a scientific standpoint have come to the conclusion that with the present forms of power plant the maximum possible level speed exceeds 50(1 miles an hour, but is probably less than 000 miles an hour. Barrier io SpeeJ “Air. R. E. \Yimperis, formerly president of the Royal Aeronautical Society, who was recently appointed to the chair of Aeronautics in the University of Sydney, states in simple terms that The natural limit to tho speed! with which the air is able to get out of the way of the advancing aeroplane is the all-important barrier to unlimited speed. The speed at which the air can move when pushed by the advancing aeroplane is the same as the velocity* of sound. There is nothing wo can do to increase the velocity of sound, which is 75U miles an hour.” The tremendous power required to achieve “super-sonic” speed was re-

cently illustrated l\y .Mr. Wimperis. Ho said that se-mei other motive power or a discovery enabling head resistance to be enormously reduced, might i) verc( >ii 1 e le^pes^t^ present engine, _ wopjd- Wfi'e.'/i e tbo wJiole: of the 'tvo^Wi#allowance. Tliojra V would be none fordthe' airiramo * and its contents. Claim of 575 m.p.h. An official statement from the Cur-tiss-\Y right Corporation claims that a Curtiss Hawk 75A Pursuit -plane, one of a large number now being constructed tor the. French Air Force, rev cently' “exceeded all known speed records for terminal velocity dives by free-diving over 575 miles an hour in acceptable tests.” It was the fastest speed at which any man-propelled, machine has ever travelled. The statement says that while National Aeronautical Association officials declared that no Federation Aerommtique Internationale records even approached this speed, experts supervising the Slight test pointed: out that the plane probably exceeded a, speed of, ox 7 miles an hour, it dived so fast that "the marker on the recording air speed indieater exceeded range of the instrument and. actuallymoved off the graph roll paper. TlrptP Curtiss chief test pilot, Hi . Lloyd Child, who llew the plane, declared that lie had felt no ill effects and did not realise that lie had set. a new speed record.