FOUR DAYS FROM LONDON.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 67, 21 March 1938, Page 6

FOUR DAYS FROM LONDON.

Tt". TOie a "hail i and farewell" visit that Flying-Officer Cloufeton paid to the land of his birth, fourteen hours in the country after flying* 13,0G0 miles to reach it, and then baek, to the skyways for the long flight home. A little over four days; after leaving England his 'plane landed in New Zealand, establishing a reeord which will not easily be broken, in spite of the continuous improvement in aircraft design. Unfortunately, the strong head winds encountered all the way out thwarted the attack on the record to Darwin, made in the same machine, but two other records were broken —to Sydney and to New {Zealand —and three more may go on the way home. The visit is a stimulus to the demand for faster communication between this Dominion and the world outside. We know that times such as those of the "Australian Anniversary" are commercially impossible, but this and the past performances of the 'plane in its flights to Australia and Capetown are further evidence of the safety and durability of long-distance aircraft. They dot the i's and cross the t's of the case for the prompt establishment of a regular service which will land passengers and mails in New Zealand, within a few days of the take-oft' in England. Mr. Clouston and his companion, Mr. Victor Ricketts, are to be very warmly congratulated on a most impressive, performance, a feat only possible to men of unusual skill and indomitable will-power.