SUBMARINES TO FLY

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1004, 21 June 1930, Page 12

SUBMARINES TO FLY

WILL MOVE ON LAND, TOO One of the greatest dreams of the inventor now seems likely to be i caused. People are promised an allpurpose craft which will: Travel over land on pneumatic-tyred wheels; rim down a beach and launch itself in the sea; dive under water and turn itself into a submarine. Unreef telescopic wings and leave either sea or land for the air. Reports have been reaching London trom various sources concerning the design and construction, after years of experiment, of this hybrid craft. Several foreign Governments have, it seems, already been made aware of the existence of this “four-element” machine, which is said to be undergoing a series of secret tests on the Danish coast. The “hush-hush” craft—said to be the result of the efforts of several Danish inventors—has a tapering, allmetal. boat-like hull, upon either side of which are telescopic metal wings. The wings can he drawn in or reefed alongside the body by mechanism inside the hull. The crew, closing water-tight, compartments, can submerge their vessel and operate it below water like a submarine. On regaining the surface the craft can either be manoeuvred like a ship, by means of an under water rudder and screw, or its metallic wings can be unfurled and it can fly. Beneath its body this craft carries amphibian gear, with w heels which can be raised or low-ered, enabling it to alight and travel on the surface of the ground. It is suggested that the occupants of the new machine should be described as “land-sea-air-men.” They have the freedom of three elements —- lushing on wheels across any great smooth expanse such as a desert: extending wings to fly over mountains or forests; or gliding down to ride upon—and if necessary dive beneath —the sea.