KEEN INTEREST.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 80, 5 April 1939, Page 14

KEEN INTEREST.

FORTHCOMING FLIGHT.

INDIAN OCEAN SURVEY.

SEEKING AiTERN ATIVE ROUTE

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

SYDNEY, March 31

Keen interest has been aroused by the announcement of the forthcoming Indian Ocean flight by Captain E. G. Taylor in association with the American millionaire, Dr. Richard Arclibold, whose flying boat the Guba will be used. She is at present in Xew Guinea, where Dr. Arclibold is leading a scientific .expedition in search of insect specimens for American museums. The Guba is a type of machine which is popular with the United States coastguard service. Its two 1000 horse power motors give it the cruising speed of 150 miles per hour, and its petrol capacity, fully loaded, gives it the huge non-stop range of 4000 miles. Although it is a private machine it is fitted with twin gun turrets. The Guba was flown across the Pacific to Xew Guinea from San Francisco and since then has made one hurried flight to Sydney and back. In comparison with the machines with which Sir Charles Kingsford Smith and Mr. Ulni made their remarkable flights the Gulwi is an aerial hotel. It has six comfortable bunks and luxurious fittings. There , is a kitchen range and an ice box, and on the survey flight all the crew will he able to eat and eleep regularly in comfort. Needless to say, the Guba has the very latest in navigation aids, including an automatic pilot and one of the most powerful privately-owned radio equipments in the world. From Xew Guinea the Archbohl expedition lias been holding regular radiophone conversations with the United States.

The main purpose of the flight is to survey an alternative fimpire route across the Indian Ocean which would be less open to attack in the event of war than the present one, and on this , ground the Commonwealth Government is granting £3000 towards expenses. On its return, journey to New YorlJ the Guba will attempt a long non-stop flight of 3600 miles from Dakar in West Africa to Puerto Rico in the West Indies.

The stages on the flight across the Indian Ocean will be as follows:-—Car-narvon to Cocos Island. 1230 miles; Cocos Island to Diego Garcia, 1472 miles: Diego Garcia to Seychelles Island, 1022 miles; Seychelles Island to Mombasa (Africa), 050 miles, making a total of 4674 miles.