ACROSS ASIA TO LONDON

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21744, 28 March 1936, Page 16

ACROSS ASIA TO LONDON

AEROPLANE CRUISE FROM SYDNEY MR F. C. CHICHESTER AND MR F. D. HERRICK AN EXTENSIVE ITINERARY (rsßsa assuciatiox Tiuaiui.l WELLINGTON, March 27. An aeroplane cruise from Sydney to London by way of the East Indies, China, Manchukuo, Siberia, and the Arctic circle, Archangel and Norway is the project of two Wellington men. One is Mr F. C. Chichester, already well known as an aviator and author. Ke made the second solo flight from England to Australia at the end of 1929; the first solo crossing of the Tasman to Australia, via Norfolk Island and Lord Howe Island, in 1931, for which he was the first recipient of the Johnstone Memorial Plaque; and the first Light from Australia to Japan. The other air traveller is Mr F. D. Herrick, who was the first through passenger to book on the Australia-to-England air mail service last year.

The flight, which is to occupy three months, will start in June. Mr Chichester said to-day that they were hoping to obtain a Puss Moth machine from England, but had not yet definitely decided on a machine. He himself would act as pilot. Herrick, who was financing the venture, would be able to relieve him at the controls when in the air, but as he had no license he would not be able to land the machine. The route, which read like an extract from a gazetteer, was a particularly interesting one. From Sydney the airmen would cross Australia and proceed through the Dutch East Indies, Celebes, and Borneo, to Singapore. Thence they would traverse. Siam and French Indo-China and fly by way of Hankow and Peking across China to Harbin, in Manchukuo. If the Japanese authorities cavilled at letting them enter Manchukuo they would get out across the lonely stretches of the Gobi desert. They would cross the whole wide expanse of Asiatic Russia by Syretensk, Yeniseisk, and Tobolsk, to Archangel on the White Sea. They would tour Scandinavia and northern Europe by air until they reached Lausanne in Switzerland, where Mr Herrick had an appointment. After that they would go to London. . They expected, said Mr Chichester, to spend about three months qn the trip. They would loiter in those countries that pleased them, and would change their plans as it suited them.' Beyond London they had no definite ideas, but they would certainly come back to N?w Zealand, and he could not visualise either of them coming otherwise than by air. Both men found difficulty in stating any ostensible motive for their flight beyond love of travel end lust for flight. “I am wedded to flying,” said Mr Chichester. “I cannot abandon it row for any other way of travelling. By air, you seem able to get right into the heart of a country. I enjoy the contrast of one country after another’in quick succession. “I shall see the places I would never visit otherwise,” said Mr Herrick. “Besides, I had to go to London anyway.”