The Flight to Australia.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 16703, 11 December 1919, Page 8

The Flight to Australia.

Tiio completion of the first journey from I/ondon to Australia by aeroplane is an accomplished fact. What will bo regarded in years to come as an epoch in the history of travel, and of aviation in particular, is announced this morning in a few ter. c o words tellinc; of the arrival at Fort D.irwin of Captain l'-o-> Smith and his blather Australians by aeroplane from England. It is only ton years rir:"o the wor 1.1 was startled bv the ni*ws that the French aviator Ricriot had flown across tho English Channel from J>ovor to Calais, a distance of L'l miles, in thirty-one minute*. Piio first stapo of Captain Hoss Smith's jeurncy round the world to !; him frr-ni London l> Lyons, a distance of 4-jO miles, in mk hours forty minutes, and he lias made since then several stapes of from seven to nine hours' continuous (h<:ht. The end of the war, during which aviation was developed on purely military lines, immense advance? being made in the construction both of aeroplanes and engines, permitted of attention being turned onrc moro to the p~ss:miities of civil avintion. Tho year 1910 will henceforth he a year of great note in the history of aeronautics. In Moy an American seaplane crossed the Atlantic in three stages from tho United' States to England, nnd Hawker and Grieve, by an unlucky accident, failed to make the flight from f?t. John's to Ireland in one bound. Where Hawker and his companion failed in May, Alcock nnd Brown succeeded in Juno in making the flight of nearly 1900 miles in under eighteen hours. In July tho airship R34 made the return voyage from England to the United States.

Reranrkablo as thoso achiovoments were, the successful journey of Captain Poss Smith nnd his companions eanl rightly bo regarded no oven moro so. Apart from tho nil-important fact that the 10,000-milo journey by aoroplnno has been proved to bo quite practicable, tho flight of the Vickcrs-Vimy machine's crew* must be regarded as a font of extraordinary endurance. They have completed iheir journey in 23 dnvs two days under the limit prescribed by tho Commonwealth Government's conditions. Sinco leaving London on November 12th. they have fknvn several hundreds of miles almost daily. The journey has been made in twenty-four stages in daylight, which moans tlia«b there has been practically no rest for the crew. For when they were not actually flying, they were continually employed in overhauling their machine and packing store*, nnd the Australian jieople who nre eagerly -waiting to Tvelcomo their heroes -will not grudgo them tho rest they intend to tako at Darwin. Tho wildest flights of imagination by Julea Verne never Visualised tho journey of Ross Smith and his companions in their fliglit through snowstorms in, Europe, burning beat in Egypt and Mesopotamia nnd India, and tho tropical rains of tho East Indies.