The "Tour" of Europe
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
The “Tour of Europe.” Sixty Starters in International Light Plane Contest.
COMPETITORS in the big International Light Plane “Tour of Europe,” which started on Sunday the 20th July, were faced with atrocious weather conditions when they left the Tempelhof aerodrome, Berlin. Rain and heavy winds prevailed and during the first few days very little improvement was met with.
There was a total of no less than 60 machines at the start, the German entries predominating, while England was represented by the following :—Mr. Alan Butler (” Moth “), Mr. S. A. Thorn (Avro “Avian “), Mr. J. Carberry (Monocoupe), Captain H. S. Broad (” Moth “), Mr. Andrews (Spartan “Arrow “), Miss Winifred Spooner (” Moth “) and Lady Bailey (” Moth “). France was represented with fairly large numbers of machines and there were also Polish, Swiss and Spanish competitors. The course, which totalled 4,680 miles, was as follows :—Berlin, Brunswick, Frankfurt-on-Main, Reims, St. Inglevert, Bristol, Heston, St. Inglevert, Paris (Orly), Poitiers, Pau, Saragossa, Madrid, Seville, Madrid, Alcaniz., Barcelona, Nimes, Lyon, Lausanne, Berne,
Munich, Vienna, Prague, Breslau, Posen, Warsaw, Konisgberg, Dantzig, Berlin.
The rules of the competition (which is still in progress at the time of writing) stipulated that every contestant must spend each night at one of the obligatory stopping places, but at the same time, he could cover as many stages as he chose in one day. Marks will be given accordingly, and they will also be assigned in respect of comfort, undercarriage design, engine starting, prevention of fire, dual-control layout, parachute equipment, accessibility and other features. The examination of machines, when the allocation of marks for these qualities will be made, will take place during the present week.
The competition has been particularly interesting, as many of the foreign planes were seen for the first time in this country, when they landed at the Bristol and Heston aerodromes. Among these was the Polish R.W.D. (Cirrus “Hermes “) cabin monoplane, the lowwing cantilever B.F.W. monoplane (with inverted Argus engine), the very fine-looking Caudron low-wing monoplane, the Belgian St. Hubert parasol machine and the Arados strut-braced high-wing monoplane.