"THE BERLIN BOMBER."

Taranaki Daily News, 6 February 1919, Page 5

"THE BERLIN BOMBER."

FLIGHT IN A HANDLEY-PAGE. TRIAL TRIP WTH 41 PERSONS. London, Nov. 19. During the fateful days a week ago, when the Germans were considering the terms of armistice and the allied armies were threshing along from line to line, and from town to town, there was one thought predominant in the minds of all civilians. The peace was by now taken for gi anted, but one and all breathed rtloud the prayer: "I only hope they'll drop a few bombs on Berlin before they stop." It was a popular conviction that they would, and so undoubtedly they would, but the super-raider, the Berlin bomber, was three days too late in completion. I had a flight in her a few days ago, with 40 others. She is a Handley-Page, with a spread of 127 ft and four engines aggregating 1400 horse-power. A tremendous creature she looked, as with wings folded back against her sides like a locust she was dragged slowly across the ground by a solemn little tractor. The aeroplane herself weighs seven and a-half tons, and carries nearly 1000 gallons of petrol, which would have been ample to take her to Berlin and back to the British lines. When fully loaded with bombs her total weight is 15 tons, and it is astonishing with what ease she rises from her four runners, and swims up into the air. It took only a few minutes of circling over the aerodrome to rise to a height of 0500 ft, at which altitude the clouds far below look like a sea. For half-an-honr we cruised about over London, getting good views of the city and of a small stream which we knew was the Thames, although at that altitude it looked no larger than the Avion in Cliristclmrch. We had enough petrol to go to Paris and back, but it was already getting dark when -we went up, and the pilot could only find his wav back by means of a flare on the aerodrome The jouT.ey was quite uneventful. It was a demonstration of the wonderful industry. Beyond the sectional inspections, which are very minute, the finished machine had no test at all, and yet it went up into the air with complete confidence. New Zealand's special interest in these machines lies in the fact that Sir Joseph Ward has already made full inquiries as to the prospects of carrying mails by them.

Mr Page says that one of the smaller machines, which, until this one appeared, were the largest in the world will carry comfortably three or four tons of mail matter. The real value of the aeroplane is over distances of 200 or 300 miles or more. For short distances it is hardly necessary. At the same time, if it goes to drop mails at way stations, Mr Page considers thnt the trouble is so little that the machine might as well alight.

■ Our pilot w<is an American, Mr Clifford Proflper, and among the passengers were several overseas press correspondents, Lord Lisburn, some ladies, and a mechanic named Foch, who was taken for luck