DOCTORS MUST NOT SPEED

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 510, 13 November 1928, Page 20

DOCTORS MUST NOT SPEED

CHRISTCHURCH PROSECUTION (Special to THE SUN) CHRISTCHURCH, Monday. A doctor rushing to a patient's bed side in Christchurch a few days ago exceeded the speed limit. “There were 178 deaths from motor accidents in New Zealand last year,*’ said Mr. E. D. Mosley, S.M., when the doctor was charged before him today. “Had the motoring by-laws been observed, there would not have been a third of that number. A doctor must not endanger the lives of people, even if he is going to save the life of a patient.’*

The A.A.C. handbooks are now available.

Six Gypsy Moths —one of the types won this year’s King’s Cup—are on order for the Civil Aviation Department of Australia. They are probably destined for the aero clubs. A special “Gypsy” is also on the water for Major De Haviland, head of the “D.H.” establishment in Australia. * * * High claims for a new landing gear and variable wing, invented by him, are made by Geoff Wickner, of Randwick. The combination, he says, will enable a plane to land or take off from a flat roof of a city building. The landing gear will allow the plane to be “pancaked” without damage to the fuselage. * * * A Lucky Crash A marine pilot, Capt. Howard, flying over Nicaragua recently, involuntarily came to earth near the La Luz gold mine. His pontoon dug into the earth and ploughed a furrow. Waiting for some assistance Howard whiled away the time by panning out £SO worth of gold from a vein thus exposed. * * * Smoke Clouds Near Stuttgart, Germany, guns spit up bombs; the bombs burst in the air and from them spread wide layers of smoke clouds. Flyers in planes could not see terrain nor buildings below. The device is considered a most successful protection to the Germans against an air attack. When R. J. Hassell and P. D. Cramer, two Swedish flyers who were long lost in Greenland, arrived by boat in Denmark, they were enthusiastic about Greenland as a way station for transAtlantic flyers. They were also full of plans for another attempt. Ford Foresees Most advertisements are, after all . . . advertisements. But the following extract from a Ford ad.—for Ford planes—in the U.S.A. papers, is big enough to be an international message. It reads:—“Events of the last 12 months have put commercial flying in America on the level of stable industries. Great. businesses have accepted it as a dependable means of swift transport, cutting two-thirds off railroad time. Business men no longer think of the mere thrill of ‘going up’; they think rather in terms of profitable service. “In the modern business world, the dawn of each new day presents a different scene . . . new products, new competition, new markets. To meet its challenge, you must be prepared. “When the occasion comes for your first time up, it will not be to joyride’ in an antiquated and hazardous machine; but far more probably it will be to reach some distant meetingplace in advance of business competition!” * * * Danger of High Flying Thirty-eight thousand feet above Daytona. Ohio, a Captain Stevens and Lieut. J. H. Doolittle were taking photographs. When their instruments indicated that they were flying toward the city at the rate of a mile a minute, they were in reality being carried away by a head wind of 115 miles an hour. Soon the thermometer registered 57 below zero and the instruments ceased to work at all. Finally the oxygen line to Capt. Steven’s breathing cap froze and his head nodded forward. When Lieut. Doolittle struck him a stinging blow in the face he recovered just long enough to see his assailant fall forward exhausted by the exertion this effort had cost him at such an altitude. Out of control, the plane dived thousands of feet into the oxygen-laden air below, where both made a timely recovery, landed the J

plane and delivered the photographs. American Enterprise Just completed at Bristol, Pa., are four 20-passenger all-metal monoplanes. which are the largest in Aunerica except one or two German planes which have been imported for passenger service work. They are equipped with luxurious trappings, hot and cold running water, sleeping compartments, radio sets and spacious windows. The 90-feet wing spread will lift, beside fuel and passengers, 1,000 pounds of luggage. The three Wright Cyclone motors have proved that they will propel this load at an average of 130 m.p.h. for four and onehalf hours and will also, if necessary attain 155 m.p.h. and a climb of 16,100 feet.. The construction of these aerial monsters was kept a secret until a few days before their trial flight.

“Time” gives an interesting but brief description of the recent American National Air carnival:

“Two months ago, in a field, not far from Los Angeles, they were harvesting barley. Then came hordes of men bearing tons of wood, truck loads of nails. 9,000 barrels of oil, 2,000,000 gallons of water. The wood and nails they made into a grandstand (capacity 17.000) into an exposition building, ultra modern, larger than a city block. The oil and water they sprinkled on the field so that whirling hundreds of propellers w'ould not raise a dust. Then there was staged the big National Air Carnival. A Navy aviator climbed 10.000 feet in four and a-half minutes. An Army flyer was killed in a formation stunt flying, Col. Charles Augustus Lindbergh took his place, continued Immelman turns, loops, barrel rolls. But a Navy trio gave a superior exhibition of stunts. In the exposition hall were 300 coloured booths, housing nearly every design of plane or accessory on the market. A professor demonstrated a fool-proof self-landing, self-balanced plane, dubbed “the flying pickle.” There were many races, the most important of which was the non-stop trans-continental derby. Col. Arthur Goebel in a Wasp-motored LockheadVega was the firt to arrive, but he did not win a prize because he had stopped once on the way to refuel. Even so his time from New York, 23 hours 50 minutes, was a record. The other entrants in the race had been forced down. Col. Thaw seriously injured, had said before starting on the race: “I'm fat. I’ll bounce.” The carnival was attended by 400,000 <75.000 on the last day). Five million dollars worth of airplanes were sold.”

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS “Aussie.”—Your facts are not sound. There are now 17 flying clubs in Canada. Over 100 Moths are in use, half being privately owned, and 30 being lent by the Government. Australia has neither the same number of clubs nor the same number of light planes. Epsom.—Perhaps you are not a financial member. “Curious.”—One of the most successful weapons used to fight against fog is the air beacon. Invaluable for night flying. Those used at some of the big airports supply a beam of more than 1,300,000 candle power, that can be seen for 100 to 120 miles and it will penetrate the heaviest haze or fog for that distance, it is shaped as a cone and throws out a constant red glow, concentrated into a tremendous flare, and it is set on a revolving platform, the movement of which accentuates its continuous rays. The light will stay illuminated for 10,000 hours without adjustment, and it is expected that eventually every uiio m I America’s 4,000 airports will be equipped with the beacon. I