SCHNEIDER CUP.

Putaruru Press, Volume VII, Issue 304, 5 September 1929, Page 1

SCHNEIDER CUP.

INTERESTING FACTS. Major Isitt’s Address. An address on the Schneider Cup contest, which covered Its inception and some of the salient facts concerning the participants in it from the commencement, was given in Wellington recently "by Major Isitt, Director of the Air Force, who has just returned from two years* experience in the Royal Air Force at Home, and who flew to Venice with the British competitors at last year’s Schneider Cup contest. Mr. H. Lloyd presided over an attendance of enl thusiasts, many of whom paid entrance fees as either flying or nonfiying members of the Wellington Aero Club, whose secretary (Mr. McArthur) was present to receive them.

The speaker, much of whose address was of a highly technical nature, traced the course of the contests since their inception in 1912. He showed the gradual increase in speeds from 45.7 miles per hour with a 160 h.p. engine in 1913. Great Britain won the trophy in 1914 with 86 miles per hour and a 100 h.p. engine. No contests were held during the war. At Bournemouth an Italian did 137 miles an hour, but was disqualified through low visibility, his plane not being seen at one of the points in the course. Italy won the 1920 contest with 137 miles an hour. Only four miles an hour increase in speed was recorded in 1921, but the winning horse-power was halved, an important aerial achieve-

ment. In 1923 America won at a SDeed of 177 miles an hour, with a 465 h.p. engine. America, in 1925, with 232 miles an hour, was thought to have reached the highest speed possible. Italy did better, however, in 1926, with 246 miles, an hour, with an engine of 800 h.p.

The race was of unparalleled importance on account of the enormous improvement it had effected in aeronautical engines, 1 and in the wonderful advertisement it was for the successful country. The statement had been made that the winning of a recent race had been worth £250,000 to the firm concerned. He did not think there would be a race his year; but if there was it would be won with average speeds of from 310 miles an hour upwards, while the speed record would be close to 350 miles an hour. The race had proved that such speeds could be attained by man. It must be realised that these speeds were flown on a circuit of 150 miles, under complete control, and that the machines had been looped j and stunted with by the pilots flying them.

The pilots were selected from dozens, equally capable. Stainforth, one of the pilots who might form a team this year, was a service pilot, whose chief claim was that he held the upside-down record for the Air Force, having flown his machine for seventeen minutes on its back. He spent hours in special harness, hanging upside down in his home in order to fit himself for the job. If Britain competed this year it would probably be with an eye on the speed record rather than the race.

The machines’ average cf petrol consumption was 45 gallons an hour at 300 miles an hour, or over six miles per gallon, said Major Isitt in answer to questions. At first private firms were responsible for the organisation of the race and teams, but gradually the expense became too intolerable a burden for any private concerns to shoulder, and the respective Governments came to take a share. Italy contributed to the expenses first in 1921, and in 1923 the United States Government definitely got behind the American champion’s efforts, and that was the first real move in Government developed engines and team. Since then every entrance had been definitely financed by the Aeronautical Department of Governments. The decision as to tintype of engine used was arrived at by different means in different countries, but in Great Britain it was decided by the technical branches of the Air Ministry. The active life of an engine before the race was only >

some five hours, and it was immediately taken down after it. It was I difficult to arrive at the cost of producing such an engine. One had cost I £14,000, but how much of that was due to the research which had produced it he did not know. Heat was one of the worst trials of the cup race. Aviators wore shorts, and sweated copiously, and Bernhardi, who was 35 minutes on the water before being brought in, had to go to hospital with a violent cold as the result of the sudden change. Fumes did not hang about the cockpits much after the first flight, but the provision of the proper quantity of air was a difficult matter. Any form of vent admitted too much. Major Isitt concluded with a description of the ideals of the two schools of air thought—the mathematicians, who said a thing could not be done, and those who simply went ahead and did it—as regarded the questions of weight and I size in modern aeroplanes, and the f merits of biplane and monoplane. |