AVIATION.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 301, 20 December 1926, Page 7

AVIATION.

CAIRO-KARACHI SERVICE. AIR LINERS COMMISSIONED. (Received 10.30 a.m.) LONDON, December 19. The first of the De Havilland BristolJupiter Empire air liners for the fortnightly service between Cairo and Karachi left London this morning. Several passengers are making the journey. Two pilots, Captains Dod and Warner, accompanied the machine. Sir Sefton Brancker (Director of Civil Aviation), in the second airship to be placed on the Cairo route, will leave Croydon on Monday. The first plane has been reported at Lyons. It will proceed thence to Malta, where it will await the arrival of the second machine, piloted by Captain Hinchcliffe. The two machines will complete the Mediterranean crossing together to the North African coast and thence on to Cairo. On arrival there the first, the Hercules, will remain to play its part in the regular mail" passenger service, which commences operating on January 12. Later on the third machine, with Sir Samuel Hoare (Air Minister) and Lady Hoare will fly from London to India. A fortnightly service will thereafter be hi-tntained. Sir Sefton Branckney's plane has a wing span of 80 feet, length 66 feet, height 18 feet, and is fitted with wireless and heating 'apparatus. INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE. COBHAM AWARDED GOLD MEDAL. PARIS, December 19. The International Aeronautical Fed* [ eration, of which Germany is a member, t has held its first meeting, at which a . gold medal was awarded to Sir Alan Cobham for his Australian flight, and i Cierva and Doisy, the French long-dis-tance flight record holders, were also ■ honoured. , Two tests were devised for world's - record contests for light aeroplanes oi from 200 to 400 kilogrammes. The tests ' will be the greatest straight-line dis- * tance without landing, and the greatest circular distance and greatest speed foi 100 kilometres and the greatest height