NEW YORK-PARIS.

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 429, 10 May 1937, Page 3

NEW YORK-PARIS.

ATLANTIC AIR RACE. Lindbergh Anniversary. Even though twenty or more entries have been made for the propos. ed New York 'to Paris, air race it is. apparently, still not certain that, the race will be flown, for air transport companies argue that it can serve no sound purpose and may do harm to aviation. Originally the race was to have been held on May 21, 1937, the tenth anniversary of Lindberg’s landing at Le Bourget af er the first nonstop flight from America to Europe, but for various reasons a postponement was made. The race was sponsored by the French Government, with an offer of a prize of one million francs, and later of total prize-money ojf two million francs, over £25,000, the largest prize offered for any event of this kind.

M. Pierre Cot, the French Air Minister, made two stipulations, the first I of which was received with concern. ‘The race, he said, should be open to all nations and types of machines, and secondly that it should be flown upon a selected dfay. It was this condition which was met by opposition from American air transport companies, who have always been opposed to anything in the way of stunt flying and who argued that up i to the date of M. Coo ’s announcement I no pilot h‘ad selected a date for an 1 Atlantic flight and had stuck to it regardless of conditions. The companies held that the fact that commercial air lines are planning to fly the Atlantic an<dJ that already the Pacific is being flown on schedule does not, in the mind of the concervative air transport operations man, indicate that a race of this kind could be anything but a risky venture. However, the French Government stood its ground that with the Ef -eat improwemen’t in aircraft; land flying technique during the ten years, since Lindberg's flight the stipulation was not unsound.', provided that the conditions excluded in competent pilots. Most of the greater air races have been dismal failures', however they are regarded, with the one exception of the Melbourne centenary race for the Macßobertspn cup, and even this race did nothing to improve good fellowship, for the conditions govern, ing entries were the cause of a great deal of dissatisfaction. The Johannesburg race, the aim of which was to prove to the world the reliability of the machines eligible to fake part, ended at' a ifiasco , but no greater fiasco than a comparable French air race, Paris to Saigon, at about the same time. Ameifica proposed to stage a round-Arnerica race, over a route' covering both Americas, but the plans were not proceeded with. The Dole Race Disaster, There has been oly one transocean race on any large scale land it proved such a tragedy that repetition hat' been lohg in coming. In the year of Lindberg’s flight, when the whole world opened its eyes in enthusiastic’ astonishment, James G' Dole, a Hawaiian pineapple magnate, offered 35,000 dollars in prizes for a flight from Oakland to Honolulu. There were eight entrants. Two finished and six men and one woman were lost at tea. Mr Dole 'did not anticipate a race of that sort. He merely wanted, to ccfccentrate attention on the possibilities of air transport between Honolulu and the United States. He did not even specify a special day for the flights, but stipulated that the contestants' should not fly later than a special day. Since then a great, deal more has been learned about fljiug over water in particular. One plane in that

competition dropped' into the sea because the veteran pilot did not know how to fly blind or by instrument. The artificial horizon bad not been perfected then, and aside from a few professional pilots the art of flying without a horizon line on which to trim the plane was unknown.. No Pan-American Entry. Pan-American Airways have hn r nounced that they will not have an entry in the New York-Paris race for though they have a greater - exi perience of ocean distance flying than any other organisation in the world they are opposed to any ocean fly’ mg for which complete preparation has not been made, other transport companies follow the same policy and see m a possible disaster to a dace machine and crew a serious setback to the coming transatlantic services but there are already twenty or so independent entries from pilots and co-pilcl s, who prepare <as far as 'hey can and leave the rest to for. tune and a possible share in the two million francs. There tire a dozen or more types * machine available to-day capable

on proved performance of paralleling Lindberg's flight and of reducing his time, given equal conditions, to a half or less. He was in the air on the 3600-mile crossing for 33J hours. He ’had a plane Waded to its last pound, powered engine was built in the day when a by a 200-horsepower engine, capable of a top speed of 130 miles an hour. His 50-hour record without stopping was rare, whereas the motors in use to-day develop up to 100 h.p. and are expected to run 300 hours between overhauls. Foi- Lindberg there way no auto, matic pilot, no long-range radio, and no directional gyro for compass correction. Foui- years ago Wiley Post flew from New York to Berlin in 25 hours, 400 miles further than Paris'. Lindberg cruised at 103 miles an hour, Post at 150. and since then Merrill and Richman 'at 200. Whether or not aviation will gain anything by the New York to Paris race, two things are certain. There will be plenty of pilots to make the race and records will fall.