PLANE SHOT SKYWARD

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 352, 12 May 1928, Page 1

PLANE SHOT SKYWARD

DRIVEN BY ROCKETS TESTING GERMAN IDEA (United P. A. — By Telegraph — Copyright.) (Australian Press Association.) Reed. 12.12 p.m. LONDON, Friday. The second remarkable demonstration by the Opel Company is fixed for May 17, when the rocket airplane, piloted by Anton Raab, will shoot off at a speed of 35 miles an hour from the Frankfurt airdrome. Soon after the start the speed will be increased to 250 miles an hour. During the flight Herr Raab hopes to take a record of meteorological conditions at a height of 32,500 feet, as it is proposed to run a transatlantic air service at this height by means of rocket planes. After that, Herr Raab will go to earth by means of a parachute. While it is automatically opening, the parachute will be affixed to the airplane. To assist in the return to earth the pilot will be enclosed in a small cage atop a long barrel, shaped like the rocket plane. A Berlin cablegram of Mav 2 read as follows; The Berlin correspondent of “The Times” says a serious attempt to shoot an airplane with a human being aboard into the air will shortly be made in Germany. A contract has been completed for the application of the Opel Motor Company's rocket system to aircraft. The occupant of the airplane in thfe coming test will be Herr Raab, a pilot of long experience. He once astonished the people of Berlin by landing in the famous thoroughfare, T_*nter der Linden, i in an airplane The machine to be used lis the Raab Katzenstein Grasmaicke Company’s light plane, which weighs 5c wt. Two batteries of rockets will be with the engine, one on either side of the fuselage between the planes. The crossbracing structure has been specialiy strengthened to resist the recoil of the explosion of the rockets and to withstand the high speed expected. The pilot’s part will be to bring the airplane to earth in a gliding flight after the rockets have burned out.