BRITAIN-INDIA FLIGHT

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 143, 20 June 1927, Page 7

BRITAIN-INDIA FLIGHT

Hawker-Horsley 'Plane Forced

Down.

STOPPAGE AFTER 100 MILES,

(By Cable.—Press Association.—Copyright.)

(Received 11 a.m.)

LOXDOX, June 19.

The British attempt on the long distance non-stop Uigh't record —Cranwell (Lincoln) to India—had an unfortunate inception on Saturday.

Flight-Lieutenants Carr and Mackworth, in their Hawker-Horsley machine, set out yesterday from the Cranwell aerodrome in Lincolnshire, but an hour later they were forced to descend at Martlesham, in Suffolk.

The forced landing effected by Lieutenant Carr with an unprecedented load of seven tons is regarded as a masterpiece. Onlookers say he alighted "light as a feather."

Not a vestige of damage was clone to the- machine.

A minor mishap Inul attended the preliminaries. The heavy load of the 'plane burst the tyre of a landing wheel at the moment the machine was taken out of the hangar, and the start was delayed until a new tyre had been fitted.

Then Lieutenant Carr taxied half a mile. The spectators breathed a sigh of relief when the machine rose, but-it only travelled for 00 minutes, covering a distance of about 100 miles.

The aviators then noticed that oil was spraying the fuselage, whereas the oil gaujro registered nil. Therefore it was impossible to proceed until the cause was investigated.

The fresh postponement of the flight is disappointing, n.s ilio airmen had waited several days for a favourable change in the wind.—(A. and N.Z. and Sydney '\Suii.")