TERRIFIC SPEED IN AIR

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 319, 2 April 1928, Page 9

TERRIFIC SPEED IN AIR

BERNARDFS NEW RECORD AVERAGE OF 318 M.P.H By Cable. —Press Association.—Copyright „ ROME, Friday. The noted Italian airman, Major di Bernardi, flying in a seaplane at Venice, attained an average speed of 318.8 miles an hour. He thus broke his own record by roughly 22 miles an hour. This has considerably increased Britain’s task of regaining the honour. In one lap Bernardi achieved the almost phenomenal speed of 348.3 S miles an hour. The weather was perfect and the sea was calm when he took off. He covered the course eight times outwards and home from from which the average was worked out. The airman was flying at a height of 150 ft when he was timed to do 348 miles an hour. Then he flew over Venice and carried out a number of spectacular loops. He made a perfect landing on the Treporti Canal. The same plane was used as in the Schneider Cup contest, but each wing had been shortened several inches. The TJnder-Secreta ry for Air, Signor Balbo, says Major Bemardi’s record can withstand all attacks by British pilots. Possibly it will be broken in a month or two, for Italy has not exhausted the possibilities of the magnificent engine used. Major Bernardi says his seaplane did not give the maximum results he had hoped for.— A. and N.Z. _