Air Speed of 330 M.P.H. Hoped For

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 451, 5 September 1928, Page 9

Air Speed of 330 M.P.H. Hoped For

ATTEMPT ON RECORD PREPARATIONS IN ENGLAND British Official Wireless. Reccl. 1.5 p.m. RUGBY, Tuesday. Preparations for a British attempt to beat the world air speed record of 318 miles an hour set up by the Italian, Major de Bernard!, are nearly complete. The attempt will ‘be made at Calshot by Flight-Lieutenant Darcy Greig in about three weeks’ time, over the course along which Flight-Lieutenant Kinkead was flying when he was killed in his attempt to break a record last year. Lieut. Greig is carrying out exhaustive tests with a Supermarine Napier S 5 seaplane, which is to make the flight. The machine is of the same type as that used by Flight-Lieutenant Webster when he won the Schneider trophy last year, and was actually taken to Venice with the other British planes as a reserve for the race. The airplane has, in the language of the Royal Air Force, been “cleaned up,” with a view to increasing its maximum speed, and has reached 317 miles an hour without being all-out. It is hoped that a speed of between 325 and 330 miles an hour will be reached during the official test. 72-HOUR ENDURANCE TEST

Another interesting development in British aviation is shortly expected. The assembly stage is now being reached in an attempt to evolve British aircraft capable of remaining in the air for three days and nights continuously, and by the end of this month preliminary flight tests may be made. The machine, which is a Fairey Napier monoplane, is being fitted with the latest Napier-Lion engine, and represents a departure from the general British practice, in that monoplane form instead of biplane has been chosen. The present endurance record is held by Germany, and was set up in July, when Risticz and Zimmerman, in a Junkers monoplane, remained in the air for hours. While in a sense the British experiment is a challenge to foreign endurance records, it is understood that the main purpose of the Air Ministry is to further research upon long endurance, which may have great practical value in view of the scattered strategic bases of the Empire.