THE BIG RACE
cently marked its Centennial with a round of celebrations, may haye-been less prominent in the world news since then, but it is sure to-be a centre of universal interest when the air race from England to Christchurch is held in October next year. John Stannage, who is station manager of 3ZB, came back not long ago from a trip overseas as’ vice-presi-dent of the Canterbury International Air Race Council. He had travelled more . than 42,000 miles by air and, as he put it, "spent more time in the air at night than I did in bed on the ground." He will tell the story of his flight in Forty Thousand Miles in Ten Weeks, which is to be heard from all Commercial stations during the next few months There will be thirteen broadcasts in the series. These will be heard at 7.30 p.m. on Saturdays, starting from 1ZB and 2ZB this Saturday (March 29), 3ZB and 4ZB on April 12 and 2ZA on April 26. "The purpose of the trip was to interest the United States Government and the United States aircraft ‘industry in the air race, and to discuss with the Royal Aero Club certain problems that had arisen in the organisation of the race and the rules and conditions," said Mr. Stannage in an interview. "I accompanied Hume D. Christie, president of the Air Race Council, and we were very well received everywhere. In the United States, for instance, there was no doubt about the Government's interest. We were their guests when we wanted to move about the country, and we flew backwards and forwards across the cominent in military transport aircraft." Asked if they had influenced additional eutries, Mr. Stannage said he thought" they had, They felt confident that such famous flyers as Jacqueline Cochran, Diana Bixbee, Paul Mantz and which so re-
United States Air Force and Navy would be entering. However, the entry forms had only just been released and entries wouldn’t close till next January. It wasn’t likely that any entrant would show his hand till after entries had closed. The air lines and aircraft companies were also keenly interested, Mr. Stannage added. Already BOAC, BEA, Qantas, KLM, and the de Havilland and Armstrong Whitworth companies had indicated their intention to enter. So it seemed certain that both sections of the race would be a success. Mr. Stannage was asked what he thought of world aviation generally. "It would take me half .an hour to answer that question," he said, "but I was amazed at the growth everywhere. Places like Idlewild Airport, New York,
and Heath Row near London are enormous terminals, with planes landing and taking off for all parts of the world every few minutes. The demand for seats for air travel is growing much faster than the aircraft manufacturing industry can provide the planes-most manufacturers are at present so busy building military types. I don’t think many people in New Zealand realise what a big business air transport has become all over the world." Mr. Stannage said he had been disappointed to see so few British civil airliners anywhere-even in England. Happily even the Americans acclaimed Britain’s prototypes, such as the de Havilland Comet and the Bristol Britannia among civil aircraft, and the Can.berra and Vickers Valiant in the military field, but it was distressing that Britain didn’t seem able to turn them out in sufficient quantity. He wished that she. would look more to the countries of the Commonwealth for mass production of the. machinery and materials. 52 Television was among the other subjects which had interested him overseas, on which Mr. Stannage briefly commented. He had seen a great deal of it, he said. In America television aérials sprouted from every city home and the whole nation was television conscious. New York had about nine alternative television programmes. "But I formed the very definite opinion that British television is right out ahead in programme content and clarity of reproduction,’ Mr. Stannage said, His trip took him not only to the United States and Britain, but to Holland and Canada, and in Forty Thousand Miles in Ten Weeks he will talk about the interesting places he saw, the people he met and the progress being made- in scientific fields-and he will give personal impressions on a wide range of subjects. There will be something about New York-its Stock Ex-
change, its Underground and the Fifth Avenue stores. From Canada will come a story about rubber-wheeled trams (which should turn Wellingtonians green with envy), a great Canadian art gallery and Alberta’s oil. Mr. Stannage saw England for the first time since 1930, so what he has to say about farming and English food today should be of interest, but he will talk also about Wedgwood antiques, trains and London taxis, Soho and Trafalgar Square. And from Holland will come a story about the work of the great Dutch painters. But for listeners, as for Mr. Stannage, the centre of interest in the talks is likely to be the coming big air race, and names such as the de Havilland Comet and the Dutch air line KLM will send the memories of many people back to the big air race from England to Australia in October, 1934. For it was, of course, a de Havillard Comet-though a very different one from the jet airliner which is Britain’s pride todaywhich won that race..And it was. an American-built Dutch commercial plane (carrying a crew of three, three passengers and 30,000 letters) which to second place, after stopping eighteen — times at the regular commercial stop--ping places. The flight of this plane, and the flight of the American commercial airliner which took third place, were, indeed, of greater immediate importance than the winning performance of the specially designed racing Comet -for they pointed the way to the regular air services of today. The 1934 race was won in an hour less than three days, and the fastest commercial plane took only a little more than 90 hours for the journey. After nine years of quite astonishing progress in aviation, how long may one expect the longer journey from London to Christchurch to take? Those who recall the excitement with which the last big race was followed will know that this time a vast listening audience in many parts of the world will wait for the answer to that question.
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 26, Issue 664, 28 March 1952, Page 6
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1,066THE BIG RACE New Zealand Listener, Volume 26, Issue 664, 28 March 1952, Page 6
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