GREAT AIRMAN KILLED

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 110, 30 July 1927, Page 1

GREAT AIRMAN KILLED

NOTED WAR ACE MACHINE NOSE-DIVES SOME DARING EXPLOITS By Cable. — Press^Association. —Copyright LONDON, Thursday. Major Franklyn L. Barnard, the famous British airman, was killed near Bristol while testing a racing airplane in which he intended to fly for the King's Cup. Engine trouble developed. The machine banked, then nose-dived and fell 100 ft. The airplane was smashed, and the airman received terrible injuries, which caused his death. Major Barnard was one of the finest air navigators in the world. He had already twice won the King’s Cup. Major Barnard habitually flew on the assumption that, there were no landmarks to guide him, and thus he flew safely in cloud and fog. As the senior pilot of Imperial Airways he was most careful, but he took plenty of risks during the Great War, when he was engaged in day and night bombing. He had flown throughout Europe in 100 different types of machines. He had flown more than 500,000 miles in cross-channel journeys. Among Major Barnard’s exploits was a flight from Paris to London above the clouds without once seeing the ground after the take-off. He journeyed from Croydon to Cologne In one day, and he travelled 840 miles round Britain at an average speed of over 150 miles an hour.—A. and N.Z. d? d: rr rr '~/r. rl- -!- dr -!- rit n- rr- ye. 7r- dDOMINION’S PENSION BILL 'J'HE annual report of the Pensions Department for the year ended March 31, 1927, shows that the total number of pensions of all classes in force at the date was 50,106, the annual value being £2,535,556, and the total payment for the year 1926-27 £2,523,229. The cost of the pensions bill per head of the European population of the Dominion last year was £1 16s 9d, and the cost of administration £68,212.