In The air

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 438, 21 August 1928, Page 7

In The air

ANOTHER ATLANTIC FLIGHT Another candidate for transatlantic honours is M. Bleriot, jun., a son of M. Louis Bleriot, who was the first man to fly across the Channel. His son is eager to make the first non-stop i flight from Paris to New York, and will use for his attempt a thick-wing monoplane driven by four engines. The machine, which is under construction at the Bleriot works, is expected to be ready shortly. AUSTRALIA TO ENGLAND Bert Hinkler, speaking at a luncheon given by the Commonwealth Rotary and Legacy Clubs in Melbourne, said that he was considering the possibility of establishing an air line between Australia and Great Britain. The journey, he estimated, could be completed in 14 days, with night flying. “Australia,” he added, “had excellent air services, but so far had only touched the fringe of flying possibilities.” LATEST BRITISH ENGINE A new air engine, the 4SO h.p. RollsRoyce, P. 12, has now been perfected and has successfully passed the British Air Ministry’s 100 hours’ test. With 12 cylinders arranged in V-shape, the engine weighs 8651 b, and its fuel consumption at normal power is 30 gallons an hour. The compression ratio is 6 to 1, and it is stated that for its power, the engine uses less fuel and has a smaller frontal area than any other standard air engine. In effect, this economy of fuel and reduction of head resistance means that a greater radius of action and a higher speed would be obtainable in a machine equipped with this engine. LIGHT PLANES FOR SEALING An Avro-Avian for Newfoundland has been purchased by Bowring Bros, for use in co-operation with their sealing fleet. Up to the present they have been using the special Avro “Baby” seaplane, which was built for Sir Ernest Shackleton’s last Antarctic Expedition, and it was returned to England when the expedition was abandoned and immediately bought by Bowring’s. This machine has been flown for a very considerable time, latterly by the famous American pilot, C. S. Caldwell. Bowring Bros, have now purchased the “Avian” to supplement their fleet. The “Baby” seaplane is alternatively equipped with skis, and the “Avian” will also be fitted up in the same way whenever it is necessary for it to alight on and take off from the snow. * * * FLYING IN WEST AUSTRALIA Ivingsford Smith and his companions will find at Perth that airplanes are not unknown there. One million miles have been flown by machines of West Australian Airways mail service during the seven years of its existence! Since 1921, over 9,000 passengers have been carried, in addition to nearly one and a-quarter million letters, and freight weighing nearly 200,0001 b. AVIATION’S AID TO FARMERS In its efforts to combat wheat rust, the Canadian Department of Agriculture has enlisted the aid of the Royal Canadian Air Force. The airmen and a technical expert in agricultural bacteriology are provided with sensitised plates which are exposed to the air, and on which spores of wheat rust, floating at high altitudes, are caught and then analysed. This method lias revealed how rust has spread in the past, and provides a means of checking one of the menaces to the wheat crop of Western Canada and the Western States, says “Flight.” THE FLYING DOCTOR One of the most interesting experiments in the history of Australian civil aviation is now in progress. Flying over outback Queensland is a plane showing a large Geneva Cross on each wing, and the name Victory, and carrying a pilot, a doctor, medical equipment and a stretcher. For the Victory carries the “Flying Doctor” — Australian Inland Mission has sent him outback, and aloft, to see how the combination fares. That the move is all to the good is indicated by the fact that in the first month of service the “Flying Doctor,” with pilot Affleck at the joystick, flew 3,000 miles, gave four anaesthetics, held two consultations, and attended 37 other patients. This fine work seems to indicate that with the advent of the plane, and with such bodies as the A.I.M. in action, outback Australia generally will soon be assured of its medical service. * * * 500 M.P.H. WITHIN 20 YEARS ’ Jules Verne’s imagination, wonder- ■ ful as time has proved it, almost pales before the predictions of international inventors now discuessing the future of flying. * The air has been thick with forecasts of terrifying speed ever since that German rocket, vanishing through a trail of fire and smoke and making diabolical sounds, left spectators numbed by its wonderful dash. Mr. A. V. Roe, pioneer of British - aviation, says that within the nexl - two or three years the crude oil engine - for aircraft will be on the market, givi ing a greater flying radius a lb ol 3 fuel and reducing the cost of flying. e Already the crude oil engine is taks ing its place in road transport, anc - fine results have been achieved with Diesel types. The Mercedes-Benz f truck, for example, is finding a worlc n market n Twenty years hence, says Mr. Roe e we may have flying machines travel - - ling at 500 miles an hour. They woulc r fly from London to New York in five n or six hours. r A similar forecast was made by the h grey-bearded scientist, Opel, in Gern many, on the occasion of the rocke - car’s debut. Multi-engined flying s boats will alight on the sea, cast thei] r. wings and proceed under their owi - power, or they will wireless fo.r help k Three years ago Mr. Roe bet i a friend that in 20 years an airplam y would travel 1,000 miles an hour fron d one part of the world to another, taking advantage of winds which read - a velocity of 200 miles an hour at higl n altitudes. a It takes as much power to drive ai y airplane 220 miles an hour at sea leve 1_ as it does 1.000 miles an hour at ai d altitude of 12 miles. The latest to enter the lists is M e Chappedelaine, a young and well known French engineer, who has con structed a model “airplane” which ha; neither propeller nor wings, and ye flies! The inventor believes that a ma chine constructed on the lines of hi model will move at between 700 am 1,000 miles an hour. It would, therefore, beat the sun ii a .race from Paris to New York. Travellers then will be able to lunch ii Paris and have the cocktail to th same meal in Broadway.

ANNUAL NUMBER PLATES

"BEST THAT CAN BE DEVISED" At the recent conference of the New Zealand Farmers' Union, the follow- j ins resolution regarding motor mini- I ber plates was passed: “That immediate steps be taken by the Government to avoid the useless waste of money incurred and the inconvenience caused by the changing of number-plates on motor vehicles every year.” The department has replied to the Farmers’ Union as follows:—“The Government is still of the opinion that the number-plate system is the best that can be devised under the scheme of motor taxation by annual licence-fees, and the following are some of the advantages which are claimed for this system:—(l) With the English system, in order to be sure that the licence is not a fake, and is otherwise correct, it is necessary for the car to be stopped, and, therefore, defrauding under the English system is much simpler than under the number-plate system under which it is impossible to evade payment of annual licence-fees for any appreciable time. For a small expense in the cost of the plates the country is saved considerable expense in ascertaining whether licence fees have been paid, in prosecuting delinquents and recovering licence-fees of which it might otherwise have been defrauded. (2) The present system preserves an annual check on the number, ownership and location of the motor-vehicles in the Dominion. This is obviously a great assistance in the unravelling of crimes in which the use of a motor-car is concerned, and the number-plate system is very heartily supported by the police.”

An analysis of the motor-car census taken on the opening day at Ascot this year gives this result: British 3,060, other makes 1,260. This is particularly significant when it is remembered that at the gatherings at this historic venue are to be found in addition to the leaders of British society, large numbers of foreign notables and tourists patriotically using cars made in their own country.

CAR LONGEVITY Some interesting figures have recently come to light regarding the period of service of a selected number of cars manufactured in America. The figures, as published by a university in the country in question, are the result of a record kept by a professor on the business side who

I selected 100.000 cars of various makes and kept track of them over a period of 122 years. At the end of a year and a-lialf 97,700 were still on the road, which figure had dropped to just over 90.000 a year later. Only some 65.097 were running after 52 years and at the end of the period of observation of the original 100,000 only 4,409 were in commission.