pt. Unwins Reaches Height of 8 Miles by 0, M. Gneew Cyril Unwins' arrange-ake an attack on the ide record—when he unprecedented height of 8} miles above the earth—were made so quietly, though they o¢- cupied many months that only when the Royal Aero Club's officials hastily" summoned to Bristol to observe the flight were the fasts generally known, And when Captain Unwins asked what it felt like to fly at ssu height, he merely replied "Unutcrably boring."
He said that he was sure the aeroplane could have climbed higher, except for petro! "giving out in Unwins used a Vieke ited with a" Bris "Pegasus" engine and climbed for about to hours.
The whole time he was fed with yygen. and his clothes and. even At E3070 fact, the height recorded gemeles were electrically heated.
instruments, no man could lived for a moment "without these appliances for the thermo: teter registered more than 100 de-frees of frost and. the ait was 20 dint death from oxygen want would have followed if the artificial topply had failed.
The aeroplane built in 1927. Te had been lying up to its wings in water for two months mi Accoriing to his instruments Captain Unwins exceeded by an Jadequate margin the world's altitude record: but before official confirma: tion of @ new record is possible the sealed barographs carried on' the fight have to be inspected and tested by the National Physical Laboratory and their readings have then to be corrected for atmospheric Pressure and density. Real height, fatter these corrections have beet ade, differs from height as tecordled by' the aneroid altimeter; but th difference is not likely to great as to endanger Captain Uwins's "chances of becoming the holder of the world's altitude record.
'The final official confirmation of world' "homelgetion" of this, as ofall world's air records, must come fro the Federation Acronautique Inter nationale, It is to this Pederatio that the Physical Laboratory's inves will be conveyed.
The altitude record is the second of the three most coveted world's ait records; the first being the speed Jand the last the distance non-stop, The distance non-stop record will be attacked in the near future=by, the Royal Air Force pilots Squadron Leader Gayford and Plight Lieut Bert in the Fairey (Napier) mionolane that did the first. non-stop lights between England and. India and between England and Egypt.
The speed record has for long stood to the credit of Great Britain, Flight Lieut, Stainforth, ying the Vickers " Supermarine Rolls-ftoyeo SOB, achieved an average speed over the three kilometres course of 40TF m hour and, although frequent attempts have been made to improve on this by other countries, none yet succeeded in doing 80, Speeds in light aeroplanes have been much increased latterly, and ab the same time they have been made much safer, The recent. race round. Thanet showed what British nero-planes can do, when one aviator Mr-W. Percival averaged 140 mp.he Lieut, Col L, A, Strange who won, ina Spartan fight aeroplane, is an, aviation pioneer with a brilliant wag record. Spartan light" neroplan have proved. them adapted for flying club us passenger carrying: the t in particular offering many adyant= ages for this kind of work.
Railways, already suffering from the competition of motor forries, may before long find a new com=
lanes.
Betitor In goods: delivery, In aero-
Business firms are recognising im increasing numbers the value of alr transport. "Among the companies to start-an air service for delivery of goods recently is J.S. Fry and Sons, the chocolate manufacturers. Ab Somerdale, Somerset, they' faugurated'a special delivery ai service. Lord Apsley performed the opening ceremony, a "Pass Moth' being used for the first journey. took'4 cwt. of goods to a London of the Vickers Cod rout Rome and ened for ths Aight Before this fight, on two oF thre occasions he had town at more $o;000 fect to tent the machine racine, "Dei the oxtraorinat was a. standard Bristol fo temperatures. the engine, wh
in every respect except for a supercharger, ran faultlessly.. Roy Fedden, the Bristol designer, has always p! jin the air-cooled principle for At present only one machine la used; but if the experiment. proves successful a fleet of machines wilt ye ordered and will operate from th company's own acrodrome at Somet dale, It is intended to use the Puss Moth on any route for the delivery, of emergency. orders and not exe elusively between Somerdale and London. Thus it will go to Glase cow, Liverpool, Newcastle, Ply" mouth, Belfast or any other place where quick delivery has been dev,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.