SECRET SEAPLANES

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 633, 9 April 1929, Page 9

SECRET SEAPLANES

SPEED OF 360 M.P.H. EXPECTED PILOTS IN TRAINING British Official Wireless RUGBY, Sunday. The British Schneider Cup team will be transferred from Felixstowe to Calshot, Southampton Water, at the end of the week, to enter upon the final stage of its training. For the first two months the pilots will continue flying in the older type of high-speed Supermarine Napier S 5 seaplanes. These machines are capable of flying at a speed of just over 300 miles an hour. It is expected that by June the special secret machines which are being built for the Schneider Cup race on September 7 will be ready. It has been agreed to attack the world’s speed record after the race for the international trophy, which it is hoped will be won at a speed of not less than 320 miles an hour. Flight-Lieutenant D’Arcy Greig attained a speed of miles an hour in one of the Supermarine Napier S 5 type of seaplanes, and it is anticipated that the new craft will give a maximum of 340 or even 360 miles an hour on a straight course. AROUND CARIBBEAN LANCASTER CRASHES AT TRINIDAD (Australian and N.Z. Press Association) MONTREAL, Monday. A message from Kingston, Jamaica, says Captain Lancaster, a well-known British airman, left Trinidad in an attempt to fly around the Caribbean Sea. His machine crashed and was totally wrecked. Captain Lancaster was slightly injured. His airplane seems to have struck an air pocket after he had started. He fell as he was trying to return to the airdrome.