A MOTORLESS FLIGHT.

Taranaki Daily News, 11 October 1922, Page 6

A MOTORLESS FLIGHT.

A NEW RECORD.

London. August 2

The greatest flying feat ever performed by man was achieved in Central Germany, where since the Armistice flight by inotorless*aeroplanes has been making tremendous strides forward. Germany by the terms of the peace being forbidden to develop the ordinary aeroplane fitted with a motor, has concentrated on this type of aviation. The hero of the episode is Hentzen, a voung engineering student at Hanover High School, and he made a flight of over two hours in a motorless aeroplane. Last year’s meeting only achieved a twenty minutes’ flight!

Hentzen went up in a one-decker sailplane, the largest machine at the meeting in order to compete for the prize ioAoO.OOO marks offered by the German I aeroplane industry for a flight accom- | plished in Germany before the end of I October.

Hentzen rose to a height of about 600 ft., and. keeping at that height, he cruised about in all directions for one hour and three-quarters, passing over bis starting point again and again. Loud applause from the crowd of spectators encouraged him to go on. Having thus more than fulfilled one of the minimum conditions for 'the prize, he turned his attention to the second condition—to continue the flight by flying for. at least five kilometres in a straight line. Hentzen turned westward and flew for 10 kilometres, making a perfect landing near the village of AVeyhers. The total duration of his flight was two hours and ten seconds. The sailplane Hentzen flew is after plans drawn up by a group of ten of his fellow students; The high schools are paying great attention to the problem of the motor--less aeroplane —a machine designed to utilise the wind for going up and coming down, and for motion forwards with or against the wind. The problem is really that of yachting in the air. These machines are not' gliders. “A flight of longer duration.” said the aviator, after his record-breaking feat, “is not now a matter of machine, but of nerve. You have to be continuously on the look-out for all the different features in the surface of the ground below, so as to utilise the variety of air currents caused by them. It is‘ a great strain.”