Thomson said that nothing must delay the preparations for the flight to India.
Air-Marshal Sir John testified that satisfactory trial flights were made in 1929, when in November the airship rode out a gale during which the wind reached a velocity of 80 miles an hou However, in this connection, John Simon quoted from the diary of Colonel Richmond, the designer of the R-101, stating that the rolling of the airship chafed holes in the Sir John Simon also quoted letter from Colonel Richmond in which the opinion was expressed that a 5,000,000 cubic feet airs was unsuitable to carry 100 passengers to the East at all times of the year, but Air-Marshal Sir John Hig-ins explained that Colonel Richmond was probably merely emphasizing that a good deal of the weight came from the passengers quarters owing to their luxury and elaborate-
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.