HONG KONG DAILY PRESS, TUESDAY, JULY 14, 1936.
AVIATION
TRIAL FLIGHT OF NEW WOMAN FLIES AT THE KING
BOMBER
Slim Lines And High Speed
“WINGED SUITCASE"
Radlett, June 24.
45,930 FT.
MARYSE HILSZ'S WORLD RECORD
"Numbed Limbs
Paris, June 23.
Mlle. Maryse Elsz, the noted French airwoman. this morning beat the world altitude record for women by attaining a height of 45.930ft
Mile. Hilsz, who was nying a Potez 50 plane, took off at 5.11. She climbed rapidly in à compara- tively small spiral
An hour and 20 minutes later she landed and announced that to the best of her knowledge she had beaten the record by a large mar- ! gin.
The recording instruments were immediately removed to l Trappes Observatory to be checked.
THE KING APPROVES A SPECIAL BADGE
For A Famous R. A. F. Squadron's Machines
Army Co-operation, No. 4 Squadron of the Royal Air Force is the first unit to have its Badge approved- by the King.
Air Force Squadrons have recently been granted the privilege of using a distinctive Badge on their ma- chines, and a record of each Badge is to be kept at the College of Arms.
1
The Chestar Herald has been to France in August 1914' with 'the appointed Inspector of Royal Alrarst contingent of the Britis.. Force Badges, and he has already Expeditionary Force to go overseas › supplied many which have a par in the Great War. ticular bearing on the History of each unit concerned.
The design for No. 4 Squadron for example, has the motto "In futuram videre (looking ahead). This refers to its main role of reconnaissance.
The latest Handley Page medium bomber, a twin- engined middle-wing monoplane, was flown from the firm's aerodrome here this afternoon. It was finished only three days ago. To-day's was its fourth trial flight. On its next outing it will go to Hendon in readiness for the R.A.F. Display on Saturday. This bomber, known for the present as the H.P.52, is evidently one of the fastest machines in its class. It is also one of the most ingenious in design, one of the cleanest in line and it has smoother wing surfaces than any other new bomber.
The central idea in the design, bably creates half the drax of this aeroplane is an unusually were placed on its side. It has slim fuselage. The idea had its another incidental advantagu, in begining in the Heyford heavy that It allows the two engines to bomber, DOW serving in large be closer to each other and to numbers. It was continued in the cause less disturbance of flying general purpose monoplane pro- trim if one should fall. On either duced by the same firm last year. side of the centre of this body is In the new bomber the fuselage the wing. very wide at the roots is so slim that there is not suff- and tapered sharply towards the cient room to set two pilots side tips. This wing uses stota and by side in the cockpit. Dented daps in the ample fashion which breadth in this way, the designer has become necessary with tapered has resorted to depth in the part tips and very clean lines.
the fuselage, which may described as the "business quar- terk," between the nose and the tralling edge of the wing. and from there to the tail has diminish-engines, which yield 50 h.p. each | fight was impressive. It took of are placed before the leading edge easily without having the flaps of the wing and fittted with three- depressed and it landed very The squadron, one of the oldest bladed airscrews of variable pitch. slowly. Its speed-range appeared after part is little more than a
The engines are wholly enclosed into be wide, the, top speed being boom to carry the tall unit.
cowlings and are faired into the equal to that of the best fighters The effect is like taking a very wing surfaces with nacelles lato at present in use in the squadrons. narrow fuselage and setting which the under-carriage legs may and is stalling speed belg that of buge suitcase about the forward be withdrawn. On the trailing a heavy bomber. Ii handled well With a few Breguet and Cody part of it. That big metal auftcase | edge of the wing, on each sidé, are End surely. Captain Cordes, the airplanes, the squadron was fast contains all that is essential to the three movable sections, one near test plot turned it sharply, raised at Farnborough in Septem- art of bombing and self-defence the root to serve, as a slotted flap," "dived it at a fairly steep angle and ber 1812. It was commanded by and set on end in this way. pro- one outwards trom it to serve showed off its fast rate of climb.
Major G. E. Raleigh, who took it
of
be
ed both breadth and height so that the fuselage ends in a point. The
in
'
1,900-HORSE POWER..
Two of the latest Bristol Pegasus
alternately £3 flap or alleion, and the third near the tip to do duty as alléron simply. On the outer parts of the leading edge are the automatic slots in two sections, The other control surface con- sist of twin fins and rudders, wide- ly separated, with a tailplane and two elevators between them. Access to the aeroplane is had through a flap-door in the aide of the fuse- Lage.
The hehaviour of this bomber in
....
MOTOR JOTTINGS
CRASHLESS GEAR-CHANGING
The
27 H.P. "Snipe"
Years ago, more than one cares to count up, a once fainous maker of ears built one with what I still regard as the ideal plain gear-change-or. at all events, the germ of it, writes John Prioleau. At a time when every car but one had a straight-through change, one gear-notch in front of the next on a plain quadrant, with the lever in the place it occupies to-day ou à few of the best cars, on the right of the driver, Darracq gave his customers a gear-change under the steering wheel. "
There was nothing tricky about, nesses would have been cleaned It, at least nothing more so than | up. The Darracq would have had
any order of the straight. Þa gear-change position in 1906 i through changes, but you had the that is only to be had with two lever where you wanted it, and sorts of gears thirty years later. although I don't suppose anybody It would, of course, have been attached much value to it in those widely copied, and who knows days of wide bodywork, you had we might have been spared the more room for your legs and for central lever which ones so muen entrance and exit. (As there" to spoil the comfort of the driver were no doors at the time, this did and his companion 10 dav
not matter much.) You went A great chance mlased for over
through the usual motions for changing gear, using your clutch in the usual way, and, so far as I remember, you were as successful
A CHANCE MISSED
thr
Humber
selective gear) you will fall, but you will not advertise your failure with excruciating noises, nor with chipped gear-teeth.
AN EASY, SILENT GEAR. I am not sure that this gear is not the sort I want more than any other. It changes naturally, that is you move the lever into the right notch immediately after you have touched the clutch-pedal. There is nothing to think about, no tim- ing, no delay. The actual change Irom on gear to another seemed
to me about as fast as the engage. ment of a pre-selective gear.
•
In action from the very beg.n- ning, the squadron took part in the retreat from Mons. It Was G. S. Shephard and Captain Lieutenant I. M. Bonham-Carter, of No. 4 Squadron, who reported the beginnings of the attempt made by Von Kluck's First Army
to envelop the left flank of the British Army.
The sun in splendour symbolises light for the Army"--the black half indicating night reconnais- sance. The dash of lightning HEROES OF THE MARNE dividing the red half, of the sun
Agalny when the Germans were from the block half, has two inpearing Paris, the same squadron. terpretations-speed of action and reported the change of direction of wireless "telegraphy.---
| Von Kluck's Army, which made possible the battle of the Marne,
the whereby
Allies effectively checked the enemy progress.
No. 4 (AC) Squadron' has many battle honours; indeed, it was in action in every, great battle which took place on the British Front in France.
NIGHT FLYING PIONEER These symbols are apt for the squadron was a ploneer in night flying, and, in the days of the Royal Flying Corps, was the first possessor of wireless facilities.
and most famous in the Royal Air Force, has been commanded by a succession of brilliant officers, un- der whom have served some : |nowned service pilots,
DRIVING TEST DELAYS
Due To Accumulations Since April, 1934
with his Ipca:
After the war the squadron re- turned to Farnborough, birthplace not only of military aviation, but the scene of many gallant exploits of early pioneers. Colonel Cody used to tether his airplane to a tree there, to secure it against the prevalling winds. The tree still stands in the tarmac—a memory: and more..
ENGINE MADE DEAF DRIVER HEAR SCREAM
A deaf man described at Laver- pool recently how he beard the 'Screams. of a girl on a runaway bicycle a moment before ate col- lided with the van he was driving,
He was Edgar Rawlinson, of Garden-street, Manchester, and when a surprised solicitor asked him how it was be could hear the girl's screams, he replied:-
"I can hear better than you when" I
driving my van. owing to the noise of my en- rine."
$
commenting that Rawlinson's claim The corner, Dr. G. C, Mort.
was quite justified." said :-
ginë sets
**The continual noise of the en- up vibrations in the 'bound' ear-drum which enables a deaf man to hear probably better than you or I. A deaf driver's hearing is made sensitive by a cannot himself
It is a pity that the driving test" regulations were ever "Ante- dated" to April 1, 1934. Incidental ly, the day and the month are ap- propriate to the result! The pool ion in many districts to-day 18 that an applicant for a test has to wait for anything up to twoj months before he can obtain an appointment examiner. This delay often means that his provisional licence runs out, and has to be renewed at a cast of five shilings, before he can
it for his examination. The, provisional licence, by the Road. Trame Act, 1930, is valid for three months, and this time can be extended only by Act of Par- noise which he Mament. It would be uneconomical hear." since the trouble is caused by the to engage any more examiners.
accumulated arrears of applicants and not by the regular now of new drivers. Would it not be, possible.
RHYME OF ROAD SIGNS
"Sing a Song of Road Signs" 18,
for these arrears to be cleared off with the assistance of the R.A.C.. whose engineering department used, before the tests became ob- a common start: this is how R. L gators, to do a brisk business in W. deals with the catalogue all- examining 'candidates for the Aculty:- Club's driving certificate? When the Ministry's 'examiners were ap pointed, the R.A.C.'s activities i this direction came to an end, but we see no reason why they should The harassed not be revived. Ministry ought to be grateful for any assistance the Club can render in this emergency.
Bing a song of Road Signs,
Drivers full of care. Bright Belistia Beacons Beaming everywhere; Danger at the Cross Roads,-
Trouble at the Bends, Square Eigns, round Bigna, Mute, bepainted' friends. · ST-Roads, Narrow. Bridge,
Major Road, Go Slow,
It is almost noiseless, and the makers claim that it causes no more than two per cent, power-loss on top-a very remarkable claim: The only criticism I have to make concerns not the gear but the con trol I found that the lever was too long, liable to catch one's cuff a quarter of a century.
when steering round-sharp bends. The de Normanville gear-box on i The new "Snipe" is a bigger and the two bigger Humbers, the Eigh- more powerful car than the last teen and the Balpe, has the lever (1935) example. The bore and in getting a quick clean change over the steering-wheel, and ex-stroke of the six-cylinder side with the Darracq as with others-or. the reverse.
cept that it is rather neater it is valved engine have been increased the same. The speed-notches, 1, from 80 by 118 to 85 by 120, the 234, "R" and the extra "C" cubic content now being a little It has always been one of the which is the coaster, follow one over four litres-a good-sized ef- major mysteries of car-building another in sequence on a quadrant, gine. The compression ratio has to me that this admirable design and you need not loose all your been raised from 6 to 6 to 1, and, should in the first place have been grip of the wheel to make generally speaking, the power-out left to one maker alone, and in change. You can steady the rim But has been improved. The ma- the second that it should never with the two Angers and push the ximum speed is claimed to be eighty have been generally adopted. In lever with your thumb.
miles an hour, as against the speed over nity it was as steady all probability it was in its early There, of course, all resemblance seventy-four of the old cat,
as is necessary. General control- term pretty experimental with a ends. The Darracq was what is Certainly the acceleration a would be improved by a wider good deal of the hit-or-miss about called to-day a crash-box, le,, one mich Improved, and the whole sock.
doubt there developed without behaviour COMFORTABLE BODYWORK here and there and there must ham-handed to avoid making au With this goes better braking, due, "The bodywork of the "Sports": {} have been an impressive amoun! exhibition of himself and a perhaps, to vacuum servo. Emer- saloon is excellent. I have seldom of lost motion in the articulations noise amounting to a nuisance fugency stopping is very satisfactory, sat in more comfortable and rest. of those long rods and arms. One those within earshot: the de Nor and the lightest touch on the pedal ful seats, particularly in front can be sure that rear-changing manville is uncrashable. If you do will bring the car into measurable The headroom has been raised and was not always as direct as our the wrong thing, such as trying control at once. I did not think in every way the car is more com- might have, wished.
to change without releasing the the steering was as comfortable a fortable. It is, I really belleve, clutch (at arst it is not easy to last years. There was not quite the Brst sports" saloon I have remember that this is not a pre- the same directness, but at any sat in that has enough room for belongings.
What of that? A year or two of careful work and these weak
Way
· Level Crossing, Double, Bend,
Stop Caution-GO! School, Corner, one
Streetki, What a Highway Codel Bo look out for the Road Signs, And never mind the Road!
long tour. Perhaps the "sport- ing"; end of it is only in the name It struck me as a very sensible travelling carriage, with lots of room for four people and their
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