AVIATION.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20308, 6 August 1931, Page 11

AVIATION.

RECORD IN SIGHT. KEEN BRITISH INTEREST AROUSED. (BRITISH OFFICIAL WIHELZSB.) (Received August sth, 5.5 p.m.) RUGBY, August 4. Considerable interest has been aroused by tho attempt to break Mr C. A. Scott's record of ten days 23 hours for tlie Australia to England flight upon which the Australian pilot, Mr J. A. Mollison, is engaged. Ho left Wyndham on July 29th flying a do Ilaviland Moth with a Mark 11. Gipsy engine. Reports of his progress encourage the hopes expressed in to-night's papers that ho will succeed in keeping to schedule and will complete tho flight to-morrow in tho final hop from Athens to Croydon, thus beating the previous record by a day and a half.

MOLLISON'S FLIGHT. ARRIVAL AT ALEPPO. LONDON, August 4. Mr J. A. Mollison arrived at Aleppo at 2 o'clock in the afternoon, after a night and morning's flight across tho desert. Mr James Allan Mollison, who was born in Scotland, is 26 years of age. Ho has flown more than 3500 hours, including 1290 hours in tho Australian National Airways. He served Ave years in the Royal Air Force, flying various types of machines, and was for one year an instructor. In 192G he served as a test pilot in India. Later he went to the South of France, and piloted an aeroplane for a private air company between Nice and Corsica. Afterwards he went to Australia, and was appointed chief instruC' tor for the South Australian Aero Club, which position he held for a year. He then .joined the Eyre Peninsula Airways, and later loft that concern to join the Australian National Airways. During tho twelve months ho was with the Australian Airways he flew on all routes between Sydney and Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, and Melbourne and Tasmania, While a member of tho Royal Air Force, he was regarded as a boxer of unusual merit. The machine which he is using on his Australia-England attempt is a D.H.GO wooden fuselage Moth, fitted with a now Gipsy 11 engine. Petrol tanks aro fitted in tho front cockpit, using up all available space. Steamlining has been carried out under the supervision of Mr Hewitt, chief- engineer of Australian National Airways, and the machine has been specially strengthened to hold extra tankage, giving a supply of 140 gallons of petrol.

MR CHICHESTER. ARRIVAL AT FORMOSA. (Received August Cth, 1.25 a.m.) TOKIO, August 5. Mr F. C. Chichester passed over Karenko, also Taihoku, and landed At Tamsui, North-Western Formosa, this afternoon. THE LINDBERGHS. HOLIDAY FLIGHT EXTENDED. (llnecivod August Cth, 7 p.in.) NEW YORK, August 4. Colonel and Mrs Charles Lindbergh hopped off from Baker Lake for Aklavik to-day at 6.35 p.m. RECORD CLAIMED. A PARACHUTE DESCENT. RIGA, August 4. Lieutenant Peterson claims a European record for a parachute descend of 20,400 feet. The descent took fifteen minutes, in tvlricli tho parachute drifted fivo miles. MISS AMY JOHNSON. PROGRESS IN FAR EASt. LONDON, August 4. A message from Manchuli states that Miss Amy Johnson flew over the RussoChinese frontier, making for Harbin. BOMBING AEROPLANE. OBSERVER KILLED. PRAGUE, August 4. Flying at'an altitude of 6000 ieet, a heavy bombing aeroplane caught fire. Tho pilot made a safe landing by using his parachute, but the observer, be* coming over-excited, opened h's para-> chute too early and was killed. The machine fell on tho roof of a distillery, which, with an adjoining shop, caught fire.

DUTCH AEROPLANES CRASH. ROTTERDAM, August 4. A military aeroplane crashed, and the pilot and sergeant were killed. At Amsterdam a Dutch air liner crashed into a signal polo and was destroyed- A boy playing in a field and five women passengers were seriously hurt. DEATH OF ITALIAN PILOT. SEAPLANE FIFTY FATHOMS DEEP ROME, August 4. It is now revealed that Captain Monti, wjio crashed and was killed two days ago, was flying one of the two new Fiat seaplanes capable of 400 nines an hour. They were specially con» structed for the Schneider iropny race. _ Salvage efforts have proved fruitless. The machine is lying at «• deptli of 300 feet.