TRANS-PACIFIC FLIGHT.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 31, 6 February 1925, Page 4

TRANS-PACIFIC FLIGHT.

THE PROJECT ABANDONED. DISTURBING TO F_EET. STATEMENT BY CS. SECRETARY. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, this day. Considerable interest xxas aroused sxer a recent report that, iv association with the projected i isit of the American Fleet to New Zealand and Australia, an attempt xias lo he made, to fly from San Francisco to Honolulu, thence to New Zealand and Australia. This stinm. lated the New Zealand effort to make, the flight across the Tasman, the org_ tlisation for xxhich is under xveigh. News has been received that th« trans-Pacific flight has been abandoned for oflicial reason,. It is stated by Mr. Curtis Wilbur, Secretary for the I'nitc-d Slates Navy, that the flight cannot be arranged in connection xvith the fleet manoeuvre! at Honolulu, because it would so disturb these movements as to practically destroy the object in holding than.. This is due to the necessity of detailing a great number of ships, as had to be done on the occasion of the round the world flight, to guard the route taken. The Navy Department, however, added Mr. Wilbur, is developing a plan by which it is hoped to hax-e a non-stop flight from San Francisco to Honolulu, and, if this is satisfactory, the matter of the longer flight xvill be again taken up; but no flight will be made during the manoeuvres of the fleet at Honolulu or its cruise to New Zealand and Australia.