WATCHING THE WORLD GO BY

Shannon News, 3 July 1928, Page 4

WATCHING THE WORLD GO BY

AVIATION STUDENTS FANTASY. A fantastic scheme for future aerial travel has been expounded by an aviation student, who believes it will be possible to construct an air vessel that will rise vertically to a point just above the '' hundred-mile'' belt of the earth's atmosphere, remain poised in space, and descend when its destination is brought immediately beneath it by tcrre:.trial rotation. His idea is to leap upwards in catapult fashion while the earth does the actual travelling ,so that the journey between London and New York, one-sixth of the distance round the globe, would take four hours.

The aeroplane would be equipped with the usual frontal propellers foi the journey through the heavier strata of atmosphere, with explosion chambers in the rear to force the craft upwards so long as air-resistance remained. Oxygen would be carried and electricity used for heating and cooking. This is certainly a remarkable vision,, but several difficulties appear to have been overlooked.

An astronomer has estimated that the temperature of space beyond the earth's atmosphere is about 18,000 degrees Eahrenheit, while the melting po'.nJfcrfOf iron is only 3000 degrees! AJft>, it is computed that the atmosphere belt is by no means confined to the hundred-mile limit, and no engines would operate in space since spirit would not vaporize in a vacuum. It has been contended that gravity extends as far as the moon, and there v always the possibility that, if a machine were able to enter the region beyond the earth's influence, it would remain stationary or get .out of control. Again, the earth's motion' cannot be reversed, and a journey thai would take six hours in one direction would occupy twelve hours when homeward bound.