Eight Hops To Harewood

New Zealand Listener, Volume 29, Issue 735, 14 August 1953, Page 6

Eight Hops To Harewood

IGHTEEN aircraft from six nations are scheduled to take off from London Airport on Thursday, October 8, on the first leg of a 10,000-mile race to Harewood, Christchurch. They will be competing for the Christchurch Centennial Air Race’s £29,000 in prizes and for international prestige ir the field of aircraft production. The winner of the speed section will also take the £1000 Harewood Gold Cup, a magnificent trophy of New Zealand gold, greenstone and rata wood. New Zealand’s entry in the race is e Handley Page Hastings transport of No. 41 Squadron, R.N.Z.A.F. It will

compete in the handicap section along with such aircraft as Britain’s Vickers Viscount and the Royal Dutch Airlines’ Douglas Liftmaster. The Hastings has a maximum range of about 3000 miles. It is powered by four 2000 h.p. Bristol Hercules engines and can attain 325 m.p.h, in level flight. To ascertain ‘the preparations required at stopping places, to practise quick refuelling and servicing, and to study weather conditions and flying fatigue, an R.N.Z.A.F. Hastings covered the proposed route in June. In addition to the normal crew of five the plane carried a duplicate. crew, a ground servicing party, a meteorological officer, a medical officer and an air quartermaster.

It also caftried 3YA’s Talks Officer Arnold Wall-formerly an R.A.F: Group Captain-and his portable tape recorder. The two half-hour programmes which resulted are to be broadcast soon. Under the title of Operation Air Race, they will be heard from the four ZB stations and 2ZA at 9.30 p.m. eon August 19 and 26. In the first programme listeners will hear crew members discuss the duties they will perform ‘during the race, and in the second Arnold Wall describes the route and some of the picturesque stopping places. Wing Commander R. F. Watson, captain of the aircraft, outlines the broad plan of the operation and estimates the time the Hastings will take as two and a half days. When it_takes off from Heath Row on October 8 the aircraft_will carry 15 aircrew members, a servicing crew of eight, a meteorological officer, a medical officer, and two civilians. The last two will be Arnold Wall and W. Courtenay, a journalist from the Kemsley newspaper group, and at present a war correspondent in Korea. The number carried will not affect the plane’s chances of success, as payload is taken into consideration in the handicap section. In charge of the servicing crew on the survey flight was Flight Lieutenant J. D. Hurley, whose crew, according to Mr. Wall, could be seen getting faster and faster as the journey progressed. The navigator, Flight Lieutenant R. J. H. Myhill,- points out that the shortest route--the great circle from Heath Row to Harewood--passes over Siberia and Korea, and is therefore impracticable.

The route chosen to conform best with the Hastings’ speed and endurance requirements is in eight stages: from Heath Row about*1330 nautical miles to Athens; 1250 miles to Shiba, an R.A.F. base near Basra; 850 miles to Masira, off the south-east coast of Arabia;’ 1450 miles to Negombo in Ceylon; 1560 miles to the Cocos Islands; 1560 miles to Perth; 1450 miles to Melbourne; and a final 1300 miles to Harewood. The plane may not necessarily take the shortest route between these points. "Pressure navigation" will be used, and tail winds will be sought (continued on next page)

(continued from previous page) wherever possible. The meteorological officer’s job will be to advise where these can best be found. The engineer and signalling officers will be carrying out their normal duties, and the air quartermaster will cater to the needs of the inner airman.. Within the limitations. of the Hastings’ galley a meal of soup, meat and greens, and fruit salad and ide cream, can be produced. Innumerable cups of tea will be required. These will play their part in helping the medical officer combat flying fatigue. This is a.considerable hazard in long-fange flying, and although the Hastings willcarry three crews in-the race it has been announced that. oxygen will be used, even at’ relatively low altitudes, to prevent undue strain affecting the men’s judgment, Special clothing will be worn to alleviate the effects of sudden changes of ‘temperature, both in the air and on

the ground. The weather will probably be fairly cool at each end of the route, but in the middle there are hot MiddleEastern stopping places, and long hops over desert. "If you call New Zealand" God’s Own Country," says Mr. Wall, "you can’ have no doubt as to whose country South Arabia is." ‘ There was to have been a compulsory check point somewhere in the Mid ile East, but this has now been eliminated and pilots may take any route’ they choose_ provided they produce evidence of -having flown a south-easterly course between England and New Zealand. The present England-New Zealand record is held by an R.A.F. bomber which flew to Ohakea six years ago in slightly more than 56 hours. Some of the handicap entries may not cut this time by much, but the first of the jets |. in the speed section should reach Harewood in little more than 24 hours.