PACIFIC FLIGHT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 240, 10 October 1934, Page 10

PACIFIC FLIGHT.

MR. ULM'S VENTURE

VANCOUVER TO MELBOURNE,

CALL AT AUCKLAND 7

Plans are being made by Australia's two outstanding aviators—Sir Charles Kingsford Smith and Mr. Charles Ulm — for separate flights across the Pacific. It is possible that these two will pass in miu-Papific, fair Chanos on his way from Brisbane to America, and Mr. Ulm oil his way from Vancouver to Melbourne. Mr. u'lm intends to land in Melbourne while the L ) „• is there, possibly on the eve of the .Melbourne Cup race, and Sir Charles proposes to attempt a record Hight to America, leaving on October 20. Additional interest is lent to these daring proposals by the fact that these two men were colleagues in the only flight across the Pacific, which still stands as one of the most spectacular and well organised flights in the history of aviation. Mr. Ulm has already purchased a British Air-speed Envoy machine with two 240 horse-power engines which give it a cruising speed of 155 miles an hour (says the Melbourne "Herald"). This machine is being constructed in England and Mr. Ulm is now in America completing arrangements for his flight before going to England. From there he will ship the machine across the Atlantic and will fly it to Vancouver. This will be his starting point on the long and lonely hop across the Pacific. His course will be by Honolulu, Suva and Auckland to Sydney. He proposes to fly across Canada and then across the Pacific to Australia in less than seven days in a British machine with an Australian crew, bringing with him an air mail. He expects that the time occupied by the flight from Vancouver to Melbourne will lie five and a half to six days. Mr. Ulni's principal objective is to demonstrate that it is practicable to run a fast direct air service between Canada and Australia, and if this is done it will be th« commencement of another chapter in the development of air communication and another monument to the prowess of Australian airmen. A short-wave wireless transmitter is being installed in the machine, and with it Mr. Ulm hopes to maintain communication with Australia throughout the flight.