THE CHINA MAIL, THURSDAY, AUGUST 23, 1934.
FLIGHT ACROSS U.S. AT 10 MILES ALTITUDE NOW CONTEMPLATED
GOLD TRANSPORT BY
AIR MAIL
NEW IMPERIAL AIRWAYS AID TO MININGTM
GROWING FORM OF TRAFFIC THAT the transport of gold by air, from Africa and India to Lon- don, has increased recently by more than 60 per cent, as compared with 1933, is shown by statistics which have just become' available.
Approximately_three weeks can often be saved if bullion from mines in the interior of Africa is sent to London by Imperial Air- ways rather than by surface transport.
190 M.P.H. IN
U.S. 37-SEATER
SEAPLANE
Consignments dispatched by land and sea have, in many cases, to go by rail to one of the coastal ports and then to continue their Journey to England by steamer;
the result being a total transit time of perhaps 30 or 40 days. LINDBERGH'S TEST But when air transport is utilis-
TRIP.
"Supreme In Air Transport."
NEW RECORD CLIMB
New York.
ed. the gold has only to be taken!
Hoping to discover if unheard-of speed is possible in the emptiness of the stratosphere, Wiley Post, daring 'round-the-world flyer, is preparing for a speed fest flight at a height of 60,000 feet in his famous plane, Winnie Mae. During the proposed dight, which is expected to start from Glennville, IL, Post hopen to attain a speed of at least 350 miles an hour.
COLLECTING AIR MAIL STAMPS
from the mines to one of the FREE neighbouring air-stations; after which it is kown at such speed that it reaches London within al week of being handed to the air- way officials in the heart of Africa.
to j
Naturally consignors have pay for the speed of air dispatch, Colonel Charles A. Lindbergh but they are perfectly willing to recently piloted from Eridgeport, do this, bearing in mind the fact Connecticut, the largest American that the sooner the gold is placed load-carrying. seaplane in a gratify on the market the sooner it be-j ingly successful test Bight.
comes interest bearing; while the With him were 30 passengers use of the air route has also the rates that insurance and a mail and parcels post load of advantage 2,50016.
are, as a rule. very considerably lower than they would be if con
.
The new machine, which is to be named Brazilian Clipper. has four signments went by ship and train. Harnet engines with a total of 8,000-h.p. streamlined into a 114f wing.
Fully loaded, it weighs 38,000lb, and is designed to curry 32 passen- gers in addition to a crew of five, as well as mails und parcels.
Two World's Records
Cheaper Than By Boat Actually. In the case of mines which have to consign gold by rail to a coastal port before it can board a steamer, but be put on which are located conveniently from an air point of view, it is often found cheaper to consign a load:
TUITION IN THE AIR
FOR CIVILIANS
Direct Entry Into R.A.F. Placed On New Basis
London, July 28. Direct entry to the RA.F. Re- serve from sivil life is to be plac- ed on a new and broader basis in the steps now being taken to find personnel for the expanding Air Force.
Details of the scheme, so far að it relates to the Reserve, were announced by the Air Ministry last night.
BRITAIN'S NEW FLYING BOAT
Will Carry Fifty
Passengers.
It has made two world's records to London by the flying route- SECOND LARGEST IN WORLD -the first for carrying a recorded taking all factors into considera- load of 8 tons to an altitude ofing-than it would be to send it 15,084ft., and the second for carry by boat and train.
ing 6% tons to a height of .21,800ft.
After taxi-ing into the choppy sea whipped up by a 20-miles brecze,
It was in the air
Although bullion loads by sir are on the increase, this form of traffic is still in Its Infancy.
STIMULUS TO HOBBY
BIG DEMAND
FOR EARLIEST
ISSUES MADE
INCREASES FOLLOW EXTENSION.
AIR-POST EXHIBITION
Recent progress with air-mail transport, and more especially with our Imperial Airways Empire air-mails, which stretch to Africa,
AIR TRANSPORT DURING WAR YEARS
Squadron At Hendon For Long-Distance Flights
Before the outbreak of the War, few desultory attempts were made
in Great Britain to use the aero- plane for civil purposes, but this aspect of its employment was lost sight of during the conflict, al- though during the years 1914-1918 - aircraft was used as a means of dispatches, and after the middle of transport and for the carriage of July 1918 one squadron was based at Hendon (London) - for the car. riage of long distance passengers and mails'
WILEY POST
POST SEEKS
NEW HONOURS
SPECIAL SUPERCHARGED
ENGINES
SEA-LEVEL PRESSURE AT
30,000 FEET
WITH ENGINEERS AND RESEARCH
STUDENTS OF PRESSURE AND TRER- MODYNAMICS AS WELL AS AERODYNA- MICS, IT HAS BEEN SOMETHING OF DREAM WITH REALISATION "JUST AROUND THE CORNER" TO PUTAN AEROPLANE. INTO THE STRATOSPHERE WITH A PAY-LOAD,
While for ten years those who look into the future have talked about it, the accomplishment, until within the last six months, has seemed far away. Now all signs point to the existing achievement as close at hand.
Wiley Post, practical engineer, and extraordinary pilot, is plan-
ning, within the next three AIR SCHOOL
months, to show what the latest in superchargers will do in a most dramatic way. The famous "Winnie Mae." Wasp-powered Lockheed Vega with which first Post and Gatty and then Post alone set records for. going around the world, is candidate for new honours.
Out For New Records
Within the next few months all Post wants to do is, first, set a world's altitude record for
STUDENTS AS
DETECTIVES
Stolen Speed Boat Located From Air.
SEARCH ENDS IN FEW HOURS
On the afternoon of the June
{India, Burma, and Malaya, and will NEW AIR MAIS planes by climbing ten miles into 127 one of the students of Air
soon be reaching Australia, has given a remarkable stimulus to the |hobby of collecting air-mail stamps
and covers.
IN BRITAIN
Whole Country May Be Linked Up
· EXTENSION OF NEW SPEED-UP PLAN
ያ'- "
Next
the air, then sét
a trans Service Training Ltd., at Hamble continental record by mak ing the round trip. Ne-saw the AST Speed Boat wark to Los Angeles and then leaving its moorings. back to Newark from dawn to morning It was found that the dusk, and, finally, win the Mac- At the air-post exhibition held
Robertson London-to-Melbourne boat had disappeared. Jout long ago in London the keen-
international Derby, the great- Police and Customs were in- The biggest passenger flying est interest was displayed in
est air race in the history of formed and four or five A.S.T. air- boat, with the exception of the stamps and covers which pro-
aeronautics.
craft flew over the creeks and German Do-X, which was never vide pictorial records of the
I am able to slate that the Post-
In this seroplane, built and de-harbours of the Isle of Wight and put into service, has been de-growth of Empire air-mails ex- signed by the Blackburn Aero tending now for 14,000 miles, master-General is contemplating livered four years ago, equipped Beaulieu River trying to discover plane Co. of Brough. It is to and over which, during a recent the linking-up of every one of the with a Wasp C. engine with two the whereabouts of the boat.
Two days later the Purser of Many mines recently have been carry 50 passengers, and will be period of twelve months, the air-great cities and towns of Great superchargers to give him dea
level pressures at 25,000 feet and the "Nevasa," a troopship Tying within 15sec making
fitted with six engines of about craft employed carried nearly Britain and Ireland by air mail in above, Post is confident that he off the A.S.T. slipway, told the Sixty seconds later it was at an ments, checking up very carefully 650 h.p.
experimental consign-
1,000 tons of mails and freight.the near future, writes a Home will be able to maintain cruising Commandant that two of his men altitude of 1,000ft.
the results obtained. Others, so It will be comparable to the Short One of the most interested correspondent.
speeds of 300 miles an hour of had seen the speed boat leave its Later Colonel Lindbergh open- far, have only been using the air six-engined flying boat, which was visitors at the recent exhibition ed up the controls, and
Sir Kingsley Wood is prepared better. airan experimental type built for the was the aviator who flew with the to go beyond the plans reported. His reasoning is simple, occasionally, when special 6,500ft, he was travelling at 190cumstances have suggested such a Air Force. It will incorporate the Arst bag of letters to be carried by If the public supports him, and miles an hour, and finally came course. But the arguments in single-spar wing construction in aeroplane in England, Mr. Claude if the air services are available,
The higher one goes the thinner the air, hence the to the landing place at 60 miles favour of air transport are usual-vented by Mr. Duncanson.
he is prepared to bring about a
less it resists the forward Instead of two main spars, the ly so convincing that the disposi- Mr. Eugene L. Vidal, Director of tion is to make a growing use of wing is built on a single tubular
First British Air. Mail
speed-up in postal delivery al
movement of the plane. most unequalled in the last cen- 'Air Commerce, declared that the it, and there is no doubt now that, metal spar, tapering to the wing
The question naturally arises, Twenty-four years ago, at Blacktury. new machine had gained for the as facilities develop for handling extremities and carrying fuel in its
pool, he made aerial history by fly- The new air routes being arrang-why don't pilots simply go to United States the "Blue Pennant" this particular form of traffic, it thick centre portion, thus obviating ing with a bag of mails for seven led by the railway companies have 40,000 feet and stay there until for "heavy transport supremacy will continue to expand consider the usual tankage and saving much
they are ready to land? miles in a gusty wind. To-day the given him his first opportunity. {ably.
weight.
cards used in that experiment are "Sir Kingsley Wood would like Weight Reduction
so eagerly sought by collectors that it to be emphasised that the first The system has been successfully good specimens are worth from 222 contract is being given to the rail- An air pump or supercharger fast up the River Test where loca incorporated in other Blackburn to £30 apiece; while the envelopes way companies purely because a has been devised which, whirling tion would be impossible from aircraft. In the case of the of certain special letters which number of regular passenger ser at from 10,000 to 20,000 revolu- land owing to the presence of hun- "Segrave" light transport machine found their way into the bag have vices organised by them are shortly tions a minute, builds up the dreds of creeks, all thick with It reduced structure weight by 42ja value of from £40, to £50.
to be in existence," said a G.P,0. pressure in the engine to give. high "reeds. per cent: and increased the pay load
official to me.
an hour.
over all merchant ships of the air."
CENTENARY RACE REGULATIONS
Official Distances Now Announced.
at
NEW HONOUR FOR M. BLERIOT
Life Member Of Royal
Aero Club.
HOLDER OF PILOT LICENCE NO. 1 PRESENT
London, July 27.
by 52 per cent.
The new flying boat will be a high-wing monoplane. Four of the engines will be housed in the lead- Ing edge of the wing, and the other two in the trailing edge.
Grahame-White.
The whole story of the car- riage of letters by balloon, air- ships, and aeroplane is told by the stamps and covers which are collected with such en- thusiasm to-day.
Letters By Balloon
Six Miles Up
normal horse-power at high al
"If any other companies organise titudes. But it taken power to new routes their claims to carry the run the supercharger and hit mails will be given every considera-herto, normal performance above: tion.
20,000 feet has beer wellnigh impossible.
Saving 24 Hours
moorings and start towards the Solent. It, then turned round and proceeded at full speed towards. Southampton. It therefore peared that the boat was some- where about Southampton Water and not in the Solent.
Aerial Search
Next morning the proprietor of a hotel at Totton reported that be had seen a black speed boat going
The Commandant immediate. ly sent one of the instructors to reconnoltre the Test He ""discovered the boat from the «air and marked its position on
the mapy
GENERAL PERMISSION TO CROSS ALL BUT FOUR COUNTRIES
The times for the new air mail Post has two super-chargers London, July 24.
* Estimates of performance As far back as 1784, while above facilities depend on the arrange which he expects will give him The police and A.S.T. personnel Supplementary regulations pro-
are not stated, but speed and London in a balloon, Dr. Jeffries ments made by Railway Air Ber-the power he needs five and six rushed to the spot and there vide that the competitors in the
great range have been design dropped a letter which is now revices; the company formed laat miles in the air, the second a found the launch, the name "Air Melbourne Centenary air races Lord Londonderry, Secretary for
ed for, and the boat will be an garded as the earliest of all pieces March to co-ordinate the railway special Bendix-eclipse, which Service Training Ltd." having been. should start from one aerodrome, Air, speaking last night at a din
ocean-going, self-contained of aerial mail. A treasured exhibit companiesa" serial enterprises. It compresses the air about two. at- obliterated from both sides and which has not yet been designed. ner in London given by the Royal
craft for trans-ocean mail and In the Snell Museum of Physics in was pointed out to me, however, mospheres.
the propeller being damaged. They will leave at short inter-Aero Club to M. Louis Bleriot, vals, and the Limes will be cor-said he took part in the French
passenger services.
Ameries, its value to-day is almost that the new facilities will make It Since, resistance le proportion- The point of the Incident is It may be recalled that at the incalculable.
possible for a letter posted in Lon-al to the density of the air and that the boat might have lain rected en route.
celebrations of M. Bleriot's first time the six-engined military flying
don to be read in Birmingham and since at 30,000 feet it is but 37 there for months without it being General permission has been ob-crossing of the Channel 25 years boat was designed, the Air Ministry
replied to, and the reply read in per cent of sea level density and discovered had it not been possible tained to traverse foreign coun- ago.
also commissioned a commercial six.| Another air-borne letter of great London, all in the same day,⠀⠀
at 40,000 feet it is but 24 per to carry out an air reconnaissance tries, except Bulgaria, Hungary, "During my visit I must say engined flying boat, construction of historical interest is pue which Nearly 24 hours will thus cent, it is easy to see why Post, Greece, and Turkey, where In that nothing struck me more than which was begun by the Super-Gypson, a ploneer aeronaut, dropped be saved to correspondents. A with a cruising speed of 170 dividual permita are necessary. the contrast between the machines marine works at Southampton. from his balloon in 1841.
similar speeding-up will be The official distances on the of one of our own magnificently Owing to the need for economy the The prices which collectors, are
avaliable between Cardiff and pects to do 350 miles an hour in ler will be turning 2,000 times, Great Circle between the control equipped fighter squadrons with contract was cancelled and work on prepared to pay, for any air-stamp
Plymouth and between Birm the stratosphere. each minute, and at that rate the centres in the speed race are 38 that frail but historic aircraft the boat stopped.
Ingham and Southampton. follows-England to Bagdad, 2553 which bore M. Bleriot safely, but
or cover which has a special story
A large part of Sir Kingaley be necessary to fly at all in the an hour. attached to it, is shown in the case
Of course higher speeds will plane will be moving 800 miles miles, Bagdad to Allahabad 2300 with
of an American Issue of 1918, in Wood's scheme rests on the appoint thinner air, since the same fac- miles; Allahabad to Singapore, invasion of Britain by man from other at the dinner table. Among which a limited number of stamps ment of an air mail adviser and the tors involved in resistance also 2210 miles; Singapore to Darwin, the air.”
them was Colonel Moore-Braba-were, by an error, printed with part mowledge of flying conditions, to will give these speeds, however, addition of extra members, with concern lift. The horse-power 2084 miles: Darwin to Charleville, M. Bleriot said that he was zon, M.P., holder of pilot licence of the design upside-down. 1889 miles; Charleville to Mal mare moved by the warmth and af- of France is held by M. Bleriot
bourne, 787 miles.
infinite hazard, on that
fection shown him by his British Handicap Concession friends than he had been after Fresh information regarding the perils of his Channel crossing wireless facilities, maps, and 25 years ago. E
cking points will be issued Lord Gorell, president of the tly. Aúproposalile being com: Royal Aero Club, announced amid- red to allow competitors in the applause that the committee, had the decided to make M. Bleriot affe the membe
cap
event to incl
radio appa
Many old fying men faced eac
30,000 PLANES IN 30 YEARS
Invention:
800
Stamps showing this error,
his advisory council
the tiny aeroplane
itely
AIRCRAFT "INSPECTION
IN ALAST
inverted, as worth 8750 to-day; while a |being creeptionally rare
form"
"such fetch
the Post On
Fontinued, on: Poje
miles an hour at 6,000 feet ex
with the help of the
peller development. ; have a controllable pit ler, virtually a change of speed as in automob
300
The pilot must think of
himself in the stratosphere.
He cannot breathe and live in any comfort above 20,000 feet and hill maintain nor mal activities.
At 30,000 life would be in dan- gerHence Post has designed and had made an, airtight ault- like a diylasuit Into which will Head tubes from hiszengines: au- Igures that each turn of per charger, thus creating a little Berow, with the blades at sea level, pressure world Inside angle, will advance the suit in which he can live and 18.2 feet The propel function normally,