EIGHT DAYS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 127, 31 May 1937, Page 10

EIGHT DAYS.

LONDON TO SYDNEY.

CORONATION PHOTOGRAPHS.

AH AERIAL ACHIEVEMENT. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, May 22. The story of the journey which brought ]>hoco<rraphs of the Coronation from London to Sydney in lees than eight days, for publication in the Sydney "Morning Herald," is even more sensational and dramatic than the "log" of most eir voyage*. The original intention v.as to send a fast aeroplane from London on Coronation night to connect at Athens with a Dutch airliner on its way to the East. But bad weather made a night trip by air to Athens impracticable, so the pictures were forwarded to Amsterdam, where, on May 19, they were handed to the pilot of the Dutch air-liner leaving for Singapore that day. From Amsterdam to Singapore nothing of importance happened, but then serious trouble arose. The "Herald" had engaged Captain P. G. Taylor, Smithy's old colleague, and one of the world's foremost aviators, ( to fly from Sydney to Singapore in his Percival Gull and to collect the pictures there. But though Taylor started from Sydney a week earlier, the monsoon storms held him

up, and he got to Batavia too late to connect with the Dutch air liner. He then decided to turn back to Koepang and wait for the pictures there, while a Dutch air liner—three-engined and capable of 200 miles an hour—was chartered by the "Herald" at Singapore. This fast machine was waiting for the pictures when they reached Singapore, and 15 minutes after their arrival it was speeding south with them to Koepang. It covered the journey during the night in less than scheduled time, and a few minutes after they reached Koepang Captain Taylor had taken delivery and had started on his long flight over the Timor Sea. He got to Wyndham last Wednesday afternoon (May 19) —five days out from Amsterdam. Captain Taylor rested there for a few hours, then set off again, making such speed that he reached Alice Springs early on Thursday morning—then flew south once more to Broken Hill, where he arrived at 4 p.m. on Friday. But then more trouble started. Weather conditions on the south-west of this State were so bad that Taylor decided that it was impossible, to proceed direct to Sydney. The "Herald" therefore chartered another 'plane to take the pictures on to Melbourne and it got there at 7.20 on Friday evening. Again after a short interval—a very few minutes after arrival—the pictures were on board another specially chartered 'plane which, piloted by Captain Webb, of Australian National Airways, took off for Sydney. There was bad flying Weather, but through rain, cloud and darkness it made such headway that it landed at Mascot by 11.40 p.m!— a very few minutes behind time—and surrendered its precious freight to the "Herald" representatives, who hurried the pictures along to the Hunter Street office. There everything was ready for their reception and before midnight the last of transferring the Coronation pictures to the pages of the Saturday edition was well begun. The actual flying time taken on the trip—allowing for differences in time between Holland and Sydney—was only an hour or two more than seven days. It is worth remembering that a hundred years ago, in 1837, the illustrations of the scene at Queen Victoria's Coronation took four months to reach Sydney. The contrast is enough to emphasise the marvellous advances made in transport and transit facilities during the past century, and to justify the "Herald's" claim that its feat in bringing these pictures to Australia within a week after the event is au epoch making event in Australia's history.