CAPE AIR RACE.

Auckland Star, Volume LI, Issue 38, 13 February 1920, Page 5

CAPE AIR RACE.

ONE MACHINE CRASHES.

AVIATORS SAFE. (By Cable.—Press Association. —Copyright.) LONDON*, February 12. The Silver Queen, the aeroplane entered by the South African Government in the Cairo-to-Cape air race, crashed near Wady Haifa owing to evaporation of the water in the radiator. The machine was wrecked, but the aviators are safe.—(A. and N.Z. Cable.)

The secrecy concerning the Cairo-to-the-Cape flight continues. Competing firms absolutely decline to give any information until their machines reach Egypt. According to official information, Lieuts. Cotton and Townsend. the Australian competitors, are still at Le Bourget, in the south of France, but varying reports are abroad. The Australian Press Association learns from an unofficial, but reliable source that their machine did not touch Le Bourget. but made a magnificent 10 hours' flight from Lympe, in Kent, and landed at dark near Brindisi. This is the longest flight from England yet accomplished. It \\es with the performance of the South African machine. Silver Queen, which made a flight of 14 hours from Brindisi. After flying throughout th? night in adverse weather it landed at Solium, on the coast of Egypt, on Sunday, and proceeded to Cairo on Monday. No news has been heard of the Handlev Page machine since it left Brindisi. Tlie Vickers machine, commissioned by the "Times," is still undergoing repairs at Tvharto-im.

It is understood that the Blackburn Company contemplates entering the race. It is negotiating with an Australian airman. Meanwhile negotiations for obtaining an engine for the Kangaroo, whicn was damaged at Suda Bay, in Crete, when en route to Australia, are proceeding. When the engine is mounted in the machine the question of whether the ! Kangaroo will be diverted to the Cape instead of a new machine being dispatched will be considered. Captain Wilkins, the chief pilot of the Kangaroo, does not intend to take part in any further stage of the flight of the Kangaroo. He may return to AustraUa by steanv'r on special duties or engajr*J for a few months in study in preparation for Mr. J. L. Cope's expedition to the Antarctic. Lieutenant Williams, another of the crew of the Kangaroo, is en Toute to Australia, but Lieuts. Bendle and Potts are determined to carry on tbe flight of the Kangaroo, preferably to Australia rather than to the Cape. Litigation is pending with reference to the recovery of insurance on the damaged engine.— (A. and N.Z. Cable.)