ENDURANCE FLIGHT.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 19213, 20 January 1928, Page 9

ENDURANCE FLIGHT.

SMITH AND POND STILL ALOFT. AEROPLANE FUNCTIONING WELL. (BT CABL*— P-MSS ASEOCIATIOK— COPTRIGHT.) (AUSTBAiIAM ANO H.Z. CABLE ASSOCIATION.) (Received January 19th, 10.5 p.m.) NEW YORK, January 19. With two-thirds of their task behind them, Captain Kingsford Smith and Lieut. Pond advised by wireless late last night that they had the highest hopes of breaking the endurance record, although their petrol consumption had been slightly higher than their estimate owing to the extreme cold which had gripped the Pacific Coast region for the past three days. Their computations gave them sufficient fuel to beat the existing record by at least two hours.

The aeroplane passed over the lower section of San Francisco at 5.20 o'clock yesterday morning. The motors were working perfectly. The 'plane came through its greatest hazard in the early hours of the morning, when its load was still heavy. The motors were functioning perfectly, and after twenty-four hours they were still faultless and were throttled at the lowest possible apeed as the morning wore on. The flyers sent a message at seven o'clock: "Good morning. We are flying in the neighbourhood of Mills Field. The motors are making 1400 revolutions a minute. It is very cold. Our sidecurtains are broken, letting the wind sweep in on us." Both airmen were warmly clad. The next message came at 9.30. It said: "Our altitudo is 600 feet, our speed 57 miles an hour, and the engine's revolutions 1390. Everything is 0.K."

GAS SUPPLY LOW. (austhalian and h.z. cable association.) (Received January 19th, 11.5 p.m.) SAN FRANCISCO, January 19. Captain Kingsford Smith was still aloft at midnight, but his gas supply is low. TASMAN FLIGHT. CAPTAIN MOODY'S PLANS. (AUSTRALIAN AND N.Z. CABLE ASSOCIATION.) SYDNEY, January 19. Captain Moody now states that Mrs Moody will not accompany him on his proposed Tasman flight. He will take as wireless operator Osmond Jolley. Mrs Moody is a niece of Sir Thomas Mackenzie.

Captain Moody says he proposes to fly to New Plymouth, which is about 300 miles shorter than the route taken by Moncrieff and Hood, being about 1150 land miles.

He believes that it can be covered in about twelve hours.

Before embarking on the trans-Tas-man flight it is the intention of the airmen to undertake test flights for at least 30 to 40 hours over land, including one endurance flight of about seventeen hours, which is longer than it takes to reach New Zealand. The machine will have a cruising radius of 2200 miles at an average speed of 100 miles an hour, and will carry three compasses and a reliable wireless transmitter.

The time of the flight will be arranged so as to. arrive in New Zealand early in the afternoon.

MR BAILEY'S PLANS. (PRESS ASSOCIATION TELEGRAM.) HAMILTON, January 19. Referring to the cabled statement of Major de Haviland in Melbourne, that he never heard of Mr Philip Bailey, the Hamilton man who proposes to fly across the Tasman, the latter states that he wrote a long letter to Major de Haviland. This communication will not havo reached Australia yet.

NEW ZEALAND ATTEMPT.

MEN NOT SHORT OF MONEY,

(rRESS ASSOCIATION TELEGRAM.)

DANNEVIRKEj January 19.

Captain Eight, on his return to Dannevirke, takes strong exception to statements in Australian newspapers that the New Zealand airmen were under any financial embarrassment in Australia. He says that a number of the statements published are quite untrue. Messrs A. McNicol and R. J. Macdonald, trustees of the flight fund, state that at no time did they receive word that the men needed money in Australia, and, as far as can be seen at present, the fund is capable of meeting all expenses in connexion with it. Captain Eight further states that the only reason why the flight was made at the particular time was because the weather report was favourable, and the airmen decided to take advantage of it.

WEATHER DATA FOR AIRMEN

(ritZSS ASSOCIATION TELEGRAU.)

WELLINGTON, January 19. The Government intends to appoint an officer to take charge of the provision of meteorological information for aviators .u New Zealand, in accordance with the recommendation or the Imperial Airways Mission, whicb was here a few months ago. Before taking up this duty, lie will have some training in London.