500 MILES AN HOUR

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 94, 11 December 1931, Page 7

500 MILES AN HOUR

MYSTERY PLANE TO FLY TWELYE MILES UP. TERRIFIC SPEED EXPECTED. The Paris correspondent of the Referee, London, states that an amaz- . ing - mystery 'plane, which has been built to the order of the French Air Ministry and will shortly take the j air, may'make all existing machines j as obsolete as horse cabs. [ It is a medium-sized monoplane, f with a normal ground speed of 150 ; miles an hour, but is specially adapI ted to ascend 12 to 15 miles, and to 1 fly in the upper strata at from 200 | to 500 miles an hour, thus bringing New York within six hours of Paris. The pilot and mechanic will be enelosed in an airtight, heated duralu- » min cylinder, but must fly blind, as \ the tiny windows are certain to be frosted over by the intense cold. The controls are operated through padded joints. The Air Ministry is confident that its technicians have evolved an alloy capable of preventing the intense cold from cracking the strongest steel like ( china. I The unknown factor, it declares, is j not the 'plane's performance, but the ; weather in the stratosphere. | Some meteorologists surmise that j in the upper strata there is a perpetual cairn, while others, predict terrific storms and 200-mile gales, mak- ! ing high flying impossible. 1 If the flight is successful the pilots will fly in a region where the earth is spinning below, and time is suspended. The 'plane at present stands in the ■ original workshops of Farman Bro1 thers, in Paris. The engine is a FarI man 350 horse-power, with a triple, j supercharged mammoth propeller, j capable of doing 25,000 revolutions a , minute. j The Air Ministry would not permit the 'plane to be photographed. v The record balloon ascent made by Professor Piccard and Dr. Kipfer in May last indicates that the stratosphere is cairn rather than stormy. The International Aeronautical Federation officially recognsed their altitude record as 52,600ft, almost 10 miles), because no existing apparatus will register a higher altitude, but the federation admitted that they must have gone much higher. Professor Piccard said subsequently, "The balloon was a most trustworthy vessel, ■ even at a height of 10 miles. We never lost control, and felt quite secure." , He pointed out that if an airship flew j in the stratosphere it would save J much time and could fly from Europe to America in a few hours. His balloon I remained at over 52,000 feet for 12 j hours. It was sighted with a powerful telescope at a great height above ! Bavaria in an apparently windless re- ! gion and scarcely moving. At Inns- | bruck (Austria), however, it was sighted at about 10,000 feet, and was tossing in'the wind.