The Sun 42 WYMDHAM STREET AUCKLAND FRIDAY, JANUARY 3, 1930 SAFETY IN THE AIR

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 861, 3 January 1930, Page 8

The Sun 42 WYMDHAM STREET AUCKLAND FRIDAY, JANUARY 3, 1930 SAFETY IN THE AIR

THE most earnest effort yet made to enlist aeronautical brains in the pursuit of the great goal of safety in the air has terminated with the award of the Guggenheim fund first prize of £20,000 to the entry of the Curtiss Airplane Company of America. This award, announced today, is a disappointment to British hopes, which had confidently expected the award to go to the Ilandley-Page interests for the discovery and application of the revolutionary principle of the slotted wing. Curiously enough, the principle of the slotted wing was embodied freely in the Curtiss entry, a new and unusually stable biplane with Handley-Page wing-slots in both the leading and trailing edges of its wings. The trade name chosen by the Curtiss Company for its new plane was that of the gay and charming Tanager, one of the prettiest of American birds. Thus is continued the process among which airplane companies, with the Curtiss interests foremost among them, have given their products the names of the birds of the air, so that winging through the skies are not only hawks, sea-hawks, falcons and condors, but mechanical contrivances which have adopted the names of the feathered originals. Its name is, however, the least important and least interesting feature of the tanager. Much more important from the technical point of view is the range of performance it had to demonstrate before it could qualify for the Guggenheim contest. The purpose of the Guggenheim fund is not only to make a plane safe in skilled hands, hut also to make it foolproof under all kinds of conditions. To be eligible for the contest a plane had to be able to land slowly, take off quickly, climb steeply, glide either at a flat or at a steep angle, and remain under control at all speeds and altitudes, even though weather conditions might prevent the pilot from remaining on an even keel. Thus in perhaps slightly more advanced form the entrants had to exhibit all those qualities which mark the handy and tractable Moth machines which have had such popularity in New Zealand. Prize contestants in the Guggenheim competition had to be confident of flying level at very little more than 35 miles an hour, of getting a variable speed in normal flight ranging from 45 miles an hour to 100 miles an hour, of gliding three minutes at 38 miles an hour with engine shut off, of landing within 100-foot space and taking off within 300 feet. A condition was that the builders of the machine eould put the machine through its best manoeuvres. Before winning the award, however, it had to satisfy the skilled Guggenheim pilots. According to the cable, it was in respect to the gliding speed of 38 miles an hour that the Handley-Page, which was strongly favoured by both English and American observers before the event, failed to qualify. Another entry that failed to demonstrate the all-round qualities demanded was the Cierva autogiro, hailed as the most revolutionary appliance in modern aviation. With the peculiar feature of its four horizontal vanes, like an exaggerated windmill, the autogiro was fancied next to the HandleyPage. Its inventor, the son of a Spanish diplomat, is the first to have built a machine that can hover and, in the words of one observer, “behave like a domestic goose,” but though it had these advantages it must have failed in other respects to fulfil the exacting specifications of the Guggenheim fund. The Curtiss machine which won the contest is Americanbuilt, a product of the company which represents the pioneering interests of Glenn Curtiss and Orville Wright, the latter of whom, curious though it may seem, was head of the board of judges for the Guggenheim contest. Behind the whole event, however, looms the potent figure of Daniel Guggenheim, the millionaire who, resigning from business ten years ago to devote himself to benevolencies, has helped aviation more than any other private agency. The immense Guggenheim fortune began with the Swiss'immigrant, Meyer Guggenheim, and his little lace and embroidery shop in the Philadelphia of 1848. Prospering, Meyer Guggenheim invested in Colorado copper mines. The family became involved in the great mining developments of the West, engaging with genius and success in international struggles, turning later to Chile copper and Congo diamonds, and now devoting millions of the money it has won from the earth to the promotion of aviation as a factor in the peacetime advancement of the world. THEIR EXCELLENCIES FIVE years ago, with the unostentatious friendliness that has made him so popular, Sir Charles Fergnsson arrived in New Zealand as Governor-General. Tomorrow evening Auckland will take its turn in bidding him farewell. It will be an occasion for regret far deeper than that plumbed by the formalities of an official function, and the address and presentation cabinet of rare woods to he placed in the hands of the Governor-General may he accepted as the genuine appreciation of Auckland citizens. In the time that has passed since Sir Charles Fergusson first took up residence in Government House and paid his introductory calls throughout the Dominion, the rare qualities of his personality and the plain, friendly dignity of his address have made a warm appeal to the democratic spirit of the country. Not the least of his personal qualities—and one of inestimable value to a man in constant demand as his Majesty’s representative —is the facility with which his Excellency has adapted himself to every public circumstance. From the beginning of his term of office he has proved himself the possessor of graceful speech, richly cored with a wise and sympathetic discernment. As is inevitable, the major portion of the Governor-General’s term has been spent in Wellington, where the business of the State has occupied a full measure of his time. Nevertheless, he has found it possible to make many official and private visits to Auckland and on numerous occasions he has expressed in word and action his regard for the Queen City. Moreover, these visits have been marked by a watchfulness in the community interest, aptly exemplified when he pointed the way to the hospital administration by offering his stately home as a haven for sick natives from the Maui Pomare —the practical act of a sympathetic gentleman. Lady Alice Fergusson, too, has played her responsible part in the public and social life of the country with an enthusiastic and untiring ability that has won for her the affectionate regard of all who move in the many spheres of her activities. Her especial interest in women’s movements, both national and local, has placed her in a position of personal leadership won apart from her official position. Again and again during the farewell tour of their Excellencies they have made refernce to the deep regret with which they leave the source of many happy experiences and memories. Tn Auckland, as in every other centre, that regret will be reciprocated.