FLIGHT ABANDONED.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 48, Issue 84, 19 January 1928, Page 5

FLIGHT ABANDONED.

SMITH’S PACIFIC PLANS. \ j i QUESTION OF TYPE OF CRAFT. (Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, January 17. The tragic end of the attempted trans-Tasman flight and the cabled news from Sydney that Captain Jungsford Smith had abandoned his proposed flight from San Francisco to Australia, owing to financial difficulties lend interest to the story told by Mr W. .A. Todd, late second officer of the Union liner Tahiti, who returned from San Francisco in the Makura yesterday. Mr Todd told a newspaper representative that he first got into touch with Captain C. E. Kingsford Smith, Lieutenant Keith V. Anderson and Mr C. 1. p. Ulm when they travelled as passengers in the Tahiti from Sydney, via Wellington, to San Francisco in JulyAugust last year. Their scheme was being backed by the Lang Government of New South Wales, a Sydney newspaper and other interests, and they proposed to buy an .aeroplane and equipment for their flight in America. Thg disastrous end of tho Dole race from Sau Francisco, .in which three aeroplanes went missing, decided them against a single-engined machine, and they purchased a Fokker monoplane fitted with three motors. When tha Tahiti returned to San Francisco on her next voyage, Mr Todd was asked to act as navigator for the flight, which was then expected to start in mid-October. TheJJnion Steam Ship Company met Mr Todd very generously in respect of and he accepted the offer. Early in October, Captain Kingsford Smith cabled to the New South Wales Government asking for a further advance of £2OOO, as, after buying the Fokker ’plane, the expedition was in debt to that amount. Jn the meantime, however, the Lang Government had been defeated, and the aviators’ reuest was refused, Air Bavin being opposed to trans-ocean flights in land aeroplanes. This put the party in a very difficult position, and no financial backing could be obtained in California to enable them to clear their debts. . Finally Captain Kingsford Smith signed up with the Associated Oil Company to make an attempt to break the world endurance flight, using that company’s products. Had this been successful, the company was prepared to give sufficient backing to enable them to start the trans-Pacific flight. The machine, which had been named Southern Cross, had to be renamed Spirit of California for the endurance flight. In order to get the machine insured, a fully licensed American pilot had to be nominally in charge of the flight, and Lieutenant George Pond, of the United States Naval Air Service went up with Kingsford Smith. _ After two false starts, which failed owing to structural defects, and several delays on account of the wet conditions of the flying fields, the ’plane went up and made a continuous flight of 491ir 29min. nearly three hours short of the record time of 52br 23min held by German airmen. Shortage of petrol forced them down, and they had less than live gallons left when they landed on the verge of collapse. The failure of this flight left the party in a very tight corner financially, as, in addition to the large sum due for wages and other heavy expenses, the mortgagees were talking of foreclosing. As there seemed no way out of tho difficulty, and Kingsford Smith could hold out no hope, of the flight starting at any definite time, Mr Todd decided that his duty to the Union Companv demanded his immediate return. He came down as a passenger in the Makura and will resume duty as second officer of that ship.