Australia to England.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19669, 12 July 1929, Page 10

Australia to England.

The public's memory is so short, and these years are so crowded with aviation events, that many persons may make the mistake —as they did with Lindbergh and the Atlantic flight—of thinking that Kingsford Smith and his are the pioneers of flight from Australia to England. Sir Alan Cobham showed the way three yeai*3 ago when he flew from England to Australia and back again. Also it is doubtful if either of those journeys, or the one that has just been completed with the landing of the Southern Cross at the Croydon aerodrome, was as remarkable an achievement as Hinkler's single-handed flight to Australia, and it is well that in the hour of the Southern Cross success these other adventurers should be remembered. Most of all should we remember the Smith Brothers, who flew out to Australia from England so long ago now (as time flies) that they seem almost to belong to another age. But there are features in the journey of the Southern Cross that make its safe arrival in England particularly interesting. If we except Lindbergh's craft, no other aeroplane has appealed so much to the imagination of the world as the Southern Cross. Her great size and power, the number of men she carried, and the immense range of her flights across the Pacific, from Australia to New Zealand and back, and now from Australia to England, have made her name and the names of Iter crew household words in several countries. The fact that j Kingsford Smith and his companions were the first to cross the Pacific in it-self secures their fame and that of the Southern Cross, and though the 1 Tasman flight was only a short hop comparatively, it was potentially so dangerous that we should take a special interest in the men who made it even if they had not been the first airmen to break through our isolation and land on our soil. It must be recognised also that the flight from Richmond to Croydon has an important bearing on the general question of air transport. Counting stoppages it occupied a little leas than thirteen days, whereas Cobham took more than a month. There is no doubt that the time could lie reduced by two or three more days if the same machine did not have to travel all the way, and if relays of men were made available. Already a regular service runs to India and back, and no doubt before very long it will

be extended to Australia. Whether many passengers will choose the air rather than the greater comfort and safety of ocean travel is another matter, though people no doubt said something similar when trains threatened to put coaches out of business.