AERONAUTICS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2610, 18 September 1909, Page 5

AERONAUTICS.

AUTHORITIES SCEPTICAL OF ZEPPELIN AIRSHIPS. United Pbebs Association —Copyright LONDON, Sept. 16. Reuter states that the airship Gross© 11., at the manoeuvres, proved a success. The Kaiser had not invited Count Zeppelin to bring his airship. BERLIN, Sept. 16. The Kaiser’s opinion and that of German military authorities js sceptical of the value of the Zeppelin airships. They consider that airships are still in the experimental stage, though Germany is ahead of other countries. A SUCCESSFUL ITALIAN AIRSHIP.

(Received September 17, 10.50 p.m.) LONDON, Sept. 17.

A military airship at Bracciano, Italy, was hours aloft, and kept along the sea board towards Civitavecchia, and! then returned, at an average 6 pe«l of 30 kilometres. FLYING PRIZES. M. Bleniot by no means appropriated all the aviation prizes when he flew across the Channel. The largest prize outstanding is the “Daily Mail’s’ £IO,OOO for a flight from London to Manchester in twenty-four hours. Baron de Forest offers £4OOO to the first British aviator who crosses the Channel in a British-built machine. M. Henri Deutseh offers £IOOO for a Channel flight wiith one passenger. The aviator who flies ten times over a course of ten kilometres will earn £4OOO. For a flight from Brussels to Ostend, or a similar distance in Belgium, a £4OO prize is offered. Other prizes in the long list include £IOOO for an* “All-British flier and pilot” covering on© mile, £4O for the first Frenchman who doubles Wilbur Wright’s distance reoord, and £4O for merely beating Wright’s record; £4O for the first lady aviator to fly a kilometre; £BOO for a return flight over a straight course of 100 kilometres; £BO for distance records for each of ten years; cup and £SOO for reoord flight in Britain, the record to be doubled each year; £IOOO (payable at £5 per mile for <a failure exceeding 25 males), London to M £2OOO, London to Manchester on British machine having Antoinette engine; £SOO, London to Manchester, British engine; £6OO, Milan to Turin (80 miles); £4OO, Chalons to Essy; £4BO for flight over a specified route in Paris; £2OOO for a flight following the Hudson River from New York to Albany (142 miles); £IOOO for a German aviator flying from! Frankfort to Russelsheim and. back in an hour; £4OOO for aviator carrying a passenger from Department of Seine to Puy-de-Dome in six hours ; £4O for owner of smallest aeroplane capable of lifting him: and £4OO for the iirst aviator who, having stopped hie engine, keeps aloft for five minutes without descending mote than 150 ft. The list is a remarkable one, and this feature of the romantic story of aeronautics is surely altogether without parallel in the history of scientific development.