KINGSFORD SMITH.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 261, 4 November 1929, Page 10

KINGSFORD SMITH.

ONE MORE OCEAN TO CROSS.

AIRMAN OX THE AORANGI.

FUTURE INTENTIONS OUTLINED,

"I've one more ocean to cross," said Major Kingsford Smith, when interviewed on hoard the Aorangi after the vessel's arival in Auckland Harbour. The airman was announcing that next year he intends to span the Atlantic westward in one jump from London to New York.

Since the Southern Cross pointed her gaily-painted wings through the Golden Gate at San Francisco last year Kingsford Smith has clone 70,000 miles in the flying machine. He is accompanied on the Aorangi by his young niece, Miss Beris Kingsford Smith, who was born in Australia, but for most of her life has been a resident of San Francisco. Major Kingsford Smith was entertained at luncheon at Honolulu by the Rotary Club, and the Aorangi was delayed for two hours so that he could attend. Fiji also welcomed him en route.

Speaking about his Atlantic attempt, Kingsford Smith said lie had pretty well completed arrangements for that trip. The Southern Cross had been left in the Fokker factory in Holland for an overhaul. She would be practically rebuilt, but the old engines, which had crossed the Pacific and Indian Oceans and the Tasman Sea, and have been all round Australia on many trips, would be in the Southern Cross when he and his team start west across the Atlantic.

'"We hope to be leaving London when the fine weather comes in May or June," said the squadron-major. <: Am I apprehensive of the trip? Certainly not, but we shall leave nothing to chance. I want more than one engine under me in case of emergency on these long flights. We succeeded across the Pacific because our preparations were perfect. This time we shall give the plans and arrangements the same utmost care, and I feel certain of success, ft is ;i highly organised and intricate business, this jumping across oceans. Men must train themselves to 'fly blind' and to meet absolutely unexpected conditions and weather. But we are surmounting all these difficulties."

Asked if he had any other flights in mind, Kingsford Smith said: "I have no plans for a flight from San Francisco to Tokyo. The Southern Cross will be hardly suitable for that trip. It's rather long for our gas capacity—and, anyway, it's the Atlantic.l want to tackle now." Returning to Sydney by the Aorangi, Kingsford Smith will devote himself this summer to the promotion of an airways company which is to operate fast passenger services between Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.