VOICE FROM SKY

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 529, 5 December 1928, Page 16

VOICE FROM SKY

THRILL FOR GOLFER'S Golfers on the South Lodge and Mitcham (Surrey) courses heard a phantom voice coming from the mist hundreds and sometimes thousands of feet overhead. It was some time before they realised that the voice was that of the pilot of an airplane which flew over the area for half an hour. Every now and then the pilot cut out his engine, and then came the ghostly voice from the clouds. Once the pilot seemed to be counting up to ten. For the rest, owing to the distance, it was impossible to pick, out the words, despite/ their amplification on the loud speaker, and listeners on the ground were uncertain whether English or a foreign language was being used. Luring one of these conversations the pilot cut his engine out for just over two minutes and for the whole of the period of silence he could be heard speaking. Uncanny In this talk he glided across South Lodge golf course at a height of about 1,000 feet, and it was an uncanny experience for golfers to see the plane emerge from the mist, then disappear into it again, while all the time the ghostly voice talked in deliberate, heavy, but muffled tones. After half an hour the airplane, flying low, went off toward Croydon airdrome. Luring the aerial conversation there were some amusing scenes on the golf course as players, caddies and greenkeepers looked all around them, searching for the source of this amazing ventriloquial voice. It was ascertained later that tests were being carried out between the airplane and a ground staff to estimate the possibility of “broadcasting” megaphoned speech from the air.