1936-08-04 — Page 2

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HONG KONG DAILY PRESS, TUESDAY, AUGUST 4. 1936.

AVIATION

FLYING OVER THE ATLANTIC

Routes And The Weather

THE CASE FOR THE AIRSHIP

In 1919 Sir John Alcock and Sir Arthur Whitten Brown blazed the trail across the Atlantic from New- foundland to Ireland, and almost immediately we were told that in two years from that date beavier-than-air machines would be flying this ocean carrying passengers and mails. Seventeen years have passed, and this pro- phecy has still to be fulfilled.

There are three projected routes;

(1) North of Scotland-Faroe the North Atlantic regularly tra- Island--Iceland-Greenland vel-have to be crossed.

Canada-New York,

(2) Ireland Newfoundland-

New York.

(3) England-Lisbon

res--Bermuda-New York.

Azo-

On one or more of these routes

it is proposed to operate a regular service of Eying-boats carrying

passengers and malis. This will depend upon

flying-boat's the

ability to operate in all weathers and at all times of the day and night:

It is fantastic to say that air- craft can operate over the Nor- hern route, via Faroe Islands- Iceland. etc., and this route, there- fore, need not be considered here.

The second route, Ireland-New- foundland-New York 15, we are told, the one followed by alrmen.

The weather chary of the North Atlantic for mid-winter gives the percentage of days over this route, with gales force eight and over, as twenty-two. These gales, ore accompanied by heavy snow squalls, and the storm tracks stretch from 52 deg. N., 12 deg. W. to 42 deg. N.. 66 deg. W., a dis- tance of 2.340 miles, of this 3,000 mile flight, In addition, between 47 deg. N., 42 deg. W., and 421 deg. "N., 85 deg. W.. a distance of 1,080 miles, les an area over which fog prevails for a percentage of thirty days, and no fewer than eighteen well-established storm tracks paths by which the burricanes of

STORM AREAS.

No aircraft can risk the vortex of a gale, oven the most seaworthy great ocean liner avoids this, and the range of heavier-than-air machines does not allow them the luxury of flying round storm areas of great size; neither does it allow fying round large areas of fog.

For mid-winter

the percentage

of days, on this route, with gales force eight and over, is ten. Storm trucks lle between 35 deg. N., 68 des. W. and 38 deg. N.. 71 deg. W., a distance of only 270 miles. Little or ne fog prevails, and the

DUKE OF KENT'S AIR

RACE SUCCESS

weather on this route la vasily First Home In King's Cup

more favourable for maintaining a schedule. Nevertheless, it la ten times more unfavourable than that prevalling over the San Francisco--- Manila route.

&

"

171.8

In the flying to-day It soon be- came evident that the faster ma- chines were being held in, the pilots confident of qualifying for When. Mr. E. W. Percival on the the final provided they completed Mew Gun, entered by the Duke of the course. Among the slower Kent. Anished the course after machines in each class it was a winning a £50 prize for the question of "securing a piace among highest speed of the day. the the chosen 50 per cent. and ac- aerodrome was being deluged" by | cordingly they made the best time rain. It had become So murky they could without actually Eying that "the beacon lighthouse was full throttie. put into operation.

No attempt can thus be made to Mr. Percival told me he had estimate to-morrow's chances on down through several very "heavy | to-day's performances. showers with bright intervals At Shoreham he had failed to cross the Une and had to take off again and make another landing.

Of the 28 original entries 26 the machine in the

BY MAJOR C. C. TURNER Hatfield, July 10. average speed for the whole Therefcle, we have no real

The King's Cup alr contest course, counting time spent at evidence to suppose that a regular opened at Hatfield to-day with an balts as dying time,' was service can be operated over this elimination flying test over am.ph. third North Atlantic route. Any course of 1,224 miles, taking in the slight advantage that may be Midlands "and the South. The the Lisboa-Azorta | weather was showery and became claimed for route is outweighed by the Fact

worse towards the late afternoon. that it adds over one thousand miles to the distance between this country and New York; greatly in- creases operating costs and places another of our Empire air routes the mercy of a foreign Power. At the extended conferences re- cently hela i Washington, the specifications laid down for the North Atlantic heavier-than-air service are, Safety first: Passen- ❘gers second: Speed third. We are always being told that the public want speed and that is one of the reasons why the heavier-than-air Here it should be remembered machine is developed, and not the that, after centuries. of experienceaurship. Yet these specifications, and operation, the present-day wittingly or otherwise, undoubtedly. surface vestes must sill have six call for the airship and not for inches more freeboard for the the flying-boat. North Atlantie than for any other ocean in the world. In addition, ane must carry 50 per cent. more ruel than hat required for the dis- tance to be travelled. The com. mercial surface ship is carrying life and property, so will the com- mercial aircraft, and, therefore, the same rule as regards quantity of fuel should apply. A Mediter ranean margin of ten minutes fuel will be something more than Q risk over the Atlantic. However if for no other reason than adverse weather conditions, and in spite of a reasonable long range and high speed, no regular service of flying-boats or aeroplanes can be established over this route.

"FINE WEATHER ROUTE." We now have to consider whd

Oce reads the figure of 48 hours as the contemplated elapsed time for the Aying-boat crossing be tween US and this country. Ob- viously, flying in the opposite dir- ection, England-US. it is going

to be more.

SPEEDS COMPARED

The flying-boat has a cruising speed of 150 m.ph. the airship 80 m.ph, with a range of 8,700 miles.. Taking forty-eight hours to cross from U.S. to England this 150 m.p.h. drops to 63 m.p.h The "Hin- denburg" crosses from Lakehurst to Frankfort in 41 hours: on the flylog-boat's journey, US. to Eng- fand, this would be 38 hours.

The airship does that for which she was built-100 people, 10 tons of freight at 80 m.ph, without sub- has been termed the "ne wea-sidy. On the other hand, the hes ther route, Lisbon--Azores Ber-vily subsidised flying-boat, carry muda.

ing a small payload, is to take 28

MOTOR

EYSTON'S 3,578 MILES IN A DAY

15 WORLD RECORDS

BROKEN

London, July 14. F.Iteen motoring world records were broken yesterday by Captain G. E, T. Eyston, the British racing motorist, and his co-driver, Albert Denly, on the Bonneville Salt Flats at Salt Lake City.

Hurtling round the track in their car, Speed of the Wind, they covered 3.578 miles in twenty-four hours at an

average speed

149.09 m.ph.

of

I beat the 3,372 miles at 140.52 m.p.h. which they themselves had made last year.

Late last night Speed of the Wind was still whirling round try ing to wrest the forty-eight-hour record from the Frenchmen, Per- rot, Dohme and Girod. who aver- aged 109.54 m.p.h. on the Monthery track.

JOTTINGS

His

hours longer to cross than her high speed warrants.

In the House of Commons re- cently, the Under-Secretary for Air, in reply to a very able speech by the Rt. Hon. Capt. F. E Quest, said the Government were now con- sidering the airship matter very "closely," and that as soon as air-

ships had proved themselves shall start rebuilding.

we

Atlantic

started. All contest were atted with Gipsy en- giries. Of the 28 starters only one was a biplane, and only three had two engines/

There were several retiranents from the race.

Mrs. Amy Mollison during the second circuit found, after leaving un rcarriage Bristol. that her could not be drawn up, and as a consequence her speed dropped and she was being overtaken again and again. She did not land at Nottingham, but few straight back to Batfeld and retired from the contest.

Mr. J. D. Kirwan broke the un-

Juls dercarriage of

"Heck" at

Bristol.

Mr. P. O. Reiss, flying Mr. Hand- 6ay Everard's Vega Gull, damaged his propeller at Shoreham,

It is exactly seventeen years since a British airship crossed and re-crossed the North carrying something more than a load of petrol. Since then" air- ships have carried thousands of people, and hundreds of tons across the oceans, without injury to a

Mr. J. H. Mathew overshot the single person. Then, may we ask, aerodrome at Shoreham and over. at what stage in their development turned in a ditch. He was not in- will airships, have proved them. | Jured. selves"? Yet without making a Mr. A. Henshaw had a "forced single crossing. £900,000 per year tanding at Brockworth,` and re- has been voted for the develop tired, but was able to fly back to ment of tying-boats over the Hatfield.» | North Atlantic,

Mr. McArthur also retirea.

SUBWAYS AND SKYWAYS

ROADWORTHINESS TESTS CHARLES BRESSEY'S

THE POLICE

NEW POWERS FOR

TO TEST THE BRAKES AND

STEERING OF ANY CAR?

POINTS FROM SIR

ADDRESS TO THE SAFETY CONGRESS

ויי

TESTING THE LORRY DRIVER

A NOVEL METHOD

;

A drastic method of instilling road sense into lorry-drivers 1s reported in an American. weekly.

According to this magazine each of the 600 lorry-drivers of the Brooklyn Edison Company is test- ed in this "whimsy" manner,

On the route the driver is ex-

are

"The inconvenience, delay and danger caused in great cities by the opening-up of

matris and cables in busy streets afford strong argument for relegating all pected to take, two photoelectrical such services to a subway, or for apparatuses disguised providing some other reservation, hydrants

up 30 yards clear of the carriageway and foot-part. of private cars and cycles. This owners who neglect to maintain way. These words are important is broken it starts a stop watch. When the first photoelectric ray announcement by Mr. Hore-Belisha their cars in a roadworthy state coming from Sir Charles Bressey. When the second is reached the in the House of Commons last week | deserve prosecution. A change the engineer-in-charge of Greater

It is proposed to authorise the, proposals are merely an extension police and Ministry of Transport of supervisory powers already pos- In our opinion, these examiners to test the mechanism sessed.

on any premises where the vehi

are aet

·

drew further attention to see- which directs the attention of the ¦ London's highway development Watch stops, thus registering the. tion of the new draft-Construction police towards auch offenders 15 survey. They appeared in a paper Peed of the lorry. and Use Regulations which have to be welcomed. Unroadworthy on highway development written

"PHONG-ACCIDENT", SYSTEM been circulated for discussion. La vehicles are a source of danger for the National Safety Congress. At the second impulse a wooden these any police constable is em- which might usefully be eradicated Whenever there is a particularly dammy of a 12-year-old boy on powered to "test and inspect. either-potentially more dangerous than bad traffic block someone re- roller skates is catapulted out on the road or, subject to the con- 30 m.p.h offenders.

marks. "Road up. I suppose."", from behind a stationary car. II Bent of the owner of the premises.

true, the driver is going too fast "he No doubt the police would ex- That is usually only too cle is, "any brakes, silencers ofercise their testing powers on any Often the surface is being broken runs over him. steering gear fitted to

vehicle involved in an accident in mains. Much congestion undoub-transportation steps out and says, up solely for attention to the Then the superintendent of vehicle or traller."

a motor circumstances which led them to

suspect that the braking. for in- tedly would be avoided. If these "See here, my man, you were It will be realised that under stance, had been Ineffective. were laid clear of the carriageway.going too fast." the existing regulations brakes and though here the difficulty arises place, and where roads are being driver ineffectually as his speed

Where town-planning is taking!

"Geest," Jays the quivering tyres must be kept in a proper con-

that a brake may have put out of dition, and occasionally proceed.

action by the sccident itself. They extensively reconstructed. It is to and the particulars of his crime Ings are instituted for failure to

would also test a number of the Hoped that authorities every are placed on record. comply with these very desirable old and unkempt machines which where will bear that sentence of It is claimed that 'since the in- rules. In effect, therefore, the new

appear un our roads in greater Bir Charles in mind. Trate pro- troduction of this "phony-acci- numbers in summer than in win blems are more pronounced in dent system Edison tracks have had a gruelling time since starting hard for the owners of cars worth.

ter. Some people may think it London than elsewhere, but other knocked down 45 per cent, fewer municipalities have E valuable pedestrians. The casualties in the on their venture.

Denly had the nerve-racking their brakes at a cost of two or

say, £10 to be forced to improve Opportunity of learning from the ranks of the dummies are fairly ordeal of lapping the dazzling three pounds, but we must never

captal's experiences.

high white salt track during the hottest forget that in modern road con-

Vertical segregation" of traffic The present "Jerry”—they are part of the day, when the tem-ditions the safety of the public 19

another interesting point named after Gerald Byrnes." the raised by Br Charles, Slow pro- man who repairs them-is the perature was over 110 degrees,

gress is at present being made in ninth of his line, “the other eight more important than the con- He was badly burnt by the sau vience of individuals, No

separating different. - streams of having had the befeezus knocked one hours, six-hours and twelve-hour and looked almost all in as he should be permitted to drive with traffic at different levels, aut out of them by Edison trucks

drove into the pits shortly before inefficient brakes, steering or tyres. How long will it be before the big drivers who have perished from

developments soon take place statistics of the number

Captain Eyston'" "was: 30011 re- warded by breaking the record for the 4,000 miles, with an aver- age speed of 144.81 m.p.h" pre- viously held by the Frenchmen at 110.40 m.p.h.

In the twenty-four-hour record the drivers took thirteen interme- diate records-500 kilos, 600 miles 1,000 kilos, 1,000 miles. 2.000 kilos, 2,000 miles; 3.000 kllos, 3,000 miles, 4,000 miles, 5,000 kilos, the three-

figures.

NERVE-RACKING ORDEAL

.....

dusk to hand over the wheel to Eyston, As soon as he knew that he had

"I feel like a blooming, hari on beaten the twenty-four hour record,

aspillett, was how he expressed Captain” Eyston decided to go out † himself. on the fort-eight-hour attempt. The only record not beaten in Speed of the Wind was in the the first 24 hours was that for the pits for only twelve minutes 200 miles, which Jenkins covered last year atau average Captain Eyston and Deniy have speed of 151.72 m.ph.

says Reuter.

Was

of

into

In order to avoid unfairnes | circular roads of London and the heart failure or swerving some standard of brake testing routes leading off to the open plate-glass windows are unobtain should be found which would be country are properly linked up able.. applicable to the whole country in with the hub of the City by roads order that owners of doubtful ma of equally modem design? Ame chines might bring them up to rica provides us with examples of exit of which to be proud. The the proper state of fitness. Bome "overhead skyways" and "depress- | face of London may start to care, too, will have to be taken in ed roads." The new Cromwell change with almost unbelievable the enforcement of any new rules, Road Extension will give us an rapidity in the very near future

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