PACIFIC FLIGHT.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18266, 27 December 1924, Page 3

PACIFIC FLIGHT.

♦ ATTEMPT NEXT YEAR.

According; to advices received from Honolulu by Mr David G. Stead, of Sydncv, everything is taping •well for the proposed trans-Pacific flights by aeroplane from the United States of America to the Orient and Australia. There is now little doubt, he says, that the flight from. San Francisco to Sydney will take place next ycur. It is expected to synchronise with the coining of the United States fleet to these waters. The Bureau of Naval Aeronautics has recently signed a contract for the construction oi : a largo seaplane, wliicn, it is believed, is intended for the transpacific flights. The vessel is being built at Seattle. It will have a capacity of iivo" passengers and a ton of freight, l>csidest fuel and oil. The 'piano will be equipped with twin 800h.p.j 12-cylin.-dcr engines, said to bo the most powerful airplane motor unit ever built m the United States, with a contract speed of over 100 milc3 per hour. Naval designers cstimato that each engine will be powerful enough alone to drive the 'plane should that bo necessary. This seaplane is expected to fly at least 3000 miles in one non-stop flight, with what General Mitchell terms "the maximum amount of security for the personnel," and without the assistance, of surface vessels. Mr Stead says that the central committee in Honolulu, the president of which is the Governor of Hawaii, has communicated with the chiefs of the air service of the United States jarmy and navy at "Washington, with' most satisfactory results; and the Director of the Pan-Pacific Union (Mr A- H. Ford) has gone to Washington to arrange with the authorities for financing the trip. w As originally outlined, the course the flight lic3 along a, routo running from San Francisco, via Honolulu, Palmyra Is&nd, Phoenix Group, Samoa, Fiji, and Auckland, to Sydney. It is expected that this course will be followed, but should the Uni£ed States Navy undertake the flight, it is possible that a short cut to Australia may be made from Fiji, via New Caledonia, In that event Brisbane would be the point of arrival in Australia. The longer Toute ia favoured by the commercial people, because it follows the lines of commercial air development in the Southern Pacific, and closely lints Australia and New Zealand.