300 MILES AN HOUR

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 742, 15 August 1929, Page 1

300 MILES AN HOUR

Britain’s Plane Tried Out RACE FOR SCHNEIDER CUP Experts Satisfied with Tests British Official Wireless Received 11 a.m. RUGBY, Wednesday. PILOTING Britain’s mystery plane, tlie S 6, over the Schneider Gup course at tlie Solent, Squadron-Leader Orlebar several times exceeded 300 miles an hour. The great international air race will take place on September 7.

A Wellington message says that Air Chief-Marshal Sir John Salmond spent today at Calshot among the members of the high-speed flight who are concerned with the race for the Schneider Cup. He embarked in a Southampton flying-boat, and went round the course over which the Schneider Cup race is to be flown. Squadron-Leader Orlebar took up the new S 6 machine, and, flying at great speed, completed its tests. The S 6 had been flown twice only before. On each occasion it was handled very gently. Today the full power of its engines was tested. The results are believed to be satisfactory in every w r ay. In taxi-ing across the water, the S 6 evidently struck a small piece of driftwood or some other obstacle. One of the floats was dented, and the machine was taken to Woolston for repair. The damage is in no way serious.

There is a very distinct medical problem involved in the high-speed cornering which is a feature of such a race as that for the Schneider Cup,

■which, will be flown over a quadrangular course. Group-Captain Flack, of the Medical Research Section of the Air Ministry, who has specialised on the forces imposed on the human frame in flying, discussed the subject at Calshot today. He said that more than is realised may depend upon pilots rounding the corners with the least' loss of speed. If the turn is taken too wide, full speed may be maintained, but many more miles may be flown. Yet, on the other hand, a too-sliarp turn will slow down the machine, ahd, what is equally important, impose terrific acceleration loads on the pilot and the aircraft. These loads, as the pilot swings round the corner, tend to arrest the normal flow of blood to the brain and eyes, so that if the turn is over-sharp, everything tends to go black before the pilot’s eyes, and in extreme cases momentary unconsciousness ensues. How, sharply these turns can be made with safety depends therefore on the strength both of aircraft and of human physique, and the object of much of this present practice is to establish limiting factors.