NEW ZEALAND AEROPLANE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 4, 5 June 1913, Page 6

NEW ZEALAND AEROPLANE.

MR. lIAMEL'S RECORD FLIGHT

FROM DOVER TO'COLOGNE.

London, April 25,

The two-seater Bler'iot armored monoplane oil which Gustav Hamel flew last Thursday from Dover to Cologne, covering 340 miles in under four hours, has been accepted by the New Zealand Government as a gift from the Imperial Air Fleet Committee, of which Lord Desborougli is president and Sir Joseph Ward vice-president. The cost of the monoplane is £I4OO, which is being raised by subscription in this country. So far Messrs Witham, Coward and Co. have given £"200 (with a guarantee of £6oo'), Messrs T. Butlin and Co. £lO5, Messrs West's Gas Improvement Company £IOO, Lord Desborougli £52 10s, Mr. E. Marshall Fox £SO, Sir Joseph Ward £26 ss, Mr. A. Rosenthal £2l, and Major B. F. S. Baden-Powell £lO. Mr. William Coward is managing director of Messrs Wm. Coward and Co., Ltd., who desire to celebrate their 76 years' business connectipn with Australasia bv the initiation of the proposed gift. Mr. Coward has been connected with the firm since 1860. With him has been 1 associated Mr. Alfred Docker, who, as representing Messrs Coward, guaranteed £6OO as the first amount towards the cost of the machine, the condition being that it should be presented to New Zealand. The offer of the machine was made through the High Commissioner, to whom a letter was sent stating that there was a growing feeling that the time had arrived when some special effort should be made to strengthen the resources of the Empire in aerial craft, in view of the great advance now being made in this direction ■by foreign .Powers. The reply from New Zealand by cablegram read:—"Government of New Zealand gatefully accepts offer of military aeroplane." DESCRIPTION OF MR. lIAMEL'S FLIGHT.

Mr. Hamel's main impressions of his record flight was the excellence of his ■machine and the badness of the weather. "We could not liave chosen a worse day," he said. "The s(vy was full of water and . hailstones, and although I avoided as many of the big clouds as I could, there were five that I had to plunge through." The first was encountered in mid-channel. It was a severe hailstorm, and the airman and his passenger had a very bad time. Land was reached at a point off South Dunkirk, and, steering by compass a course was laid for Mechlin. From that point, which was made with precision) Cologne lay exactly due east, but the aviator had to reckon with a series of storms, which forced him to edge away to the northward, giving way, but disputing every inch of ground, as it were, with his persistent adversaries. The result was that when the Rhine was reached it was at a point some *2O miles north of Dusseldorf and (iO miles north of Cologne. This deviation lengthened the journey considerably, and Mr. Hamel puts the distance covered at 340 miles. The weather not only affected the direction hut the altitude of the flight. In order to keep out of the masses of storm clouds that blocked thfe path,' the aviator was often obliged to fly very low, much lower than he liked. "Occasionally," he Says, "we were" down to 300 ft, at other 1 times we were at 600 ft, and we were never able to get higher than 2000 ft." Mr. Hamel thinks that his passage was i unnoticed. The military correspondent, of the Standard writes:— !

"But if the people below could not see the aeroplane, the men in the aeroplane were able to observe and take note of everything beneath them. I questioned Mr. Hamel particularly on this point, because of the important bearing that it has an military aviation, and he assured me that no feature of the country below could have escaped the notice of the observer behind him, even when the rain was falling its hardest. Had the aeroplane been equipped with wireless telegraphy it would have been possible to keep up a constant supply of detailed information, let us say, to military headquarters in England. Herein lies a good deal of value of Mr. Hamel's demonstration. At Dusseldorf the aeroplane was moving in a track of storm cloud, the rain was falling heavily, and probably nobody in town noticed the craft, although it was flying at an altitude of no more than -600 ft, but the aviators marked every feature of Dusseldorf, including the sheds in which the Zeppelins are housed." $ STEERING BY COMPASS.

. It is interesting to know that the pilot steered almost entirely by compass. That instrument guided him across the Chan- | ne), oyer Belgium to Mechdirt, and afterwartMnn the storm-buffeted iournev to the Rhine. Mr. Hamel said that the instrument behaved extremely well, and that lie had no difficulty in keeping a course, a fact which seems to have greatly surprised and interested the officers of the Gem an air corps, who after were encountered at Cologne. They admitted that tliey had had a good deal of trouble in cross-country "'qrk. The total weight of the aeroplane o"n , leaving Dover was 17601'b. • Of that weight 8201b represented pilot, passenger, 'fuel, oil, extra fuel 'tank, a very large portion, it will be noticed, speaking volumes for the efficiency of the machine. Oil and fuel were carried enough to kv f for a continuous flight for flye'hours and a-half; that is to say, 40 trillions of petrol | and 10 gallons of oil. The journey last- | ed about three hours and a-quarter, therefore there was enough fuel le f t for a: considerably further flight, or, say, 100 miles, a distance which would have taken Mr. Hamel well out of the German Empire. Mr. Hamel was welcomed in a vpvv friendly manner by the German officers at Cologne. He returned the following (lav to London by train, and had a great reception at Charing Cross.