POSSIBLE FLIGHT TO AUSTRALIA

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21967, 16 December 1936, Page 11

POSSIBLE FLIGHT TO AUSTRALIA

MRS PUTNAM’S PLANS ENQUIRIES ABOUT PACIFIC ROUTE (Received December 15, 10.10 p.m.) NEW YORK, December 14. ‘The Associated Press learns on indisputable authority that Mrs Amelia Earhart Putnam, who has flown solo from Honolulu to San Francisco, and who was the first woman to cross the Atlantic in an aeroplane, is contemplating a flight to Australia in the summer of 1937. When she was approached where she is spending a holiday on a desert ranch in California, Mrs Putnam told a correspondent that because her plans were not yet definitely settled she must decline to make a statement at present. She would find it more expedient to talk of her plans when all the arrangements had been made. Until then she could only say that she would very much like to go to Australia, the only continent she had hot visited. “Some day I hope to make the trip,” she added. The Associated Press has been informed that definite enquiries have been made about a route across the Pacific, the contemplated stops being Honolulu, Howland Island, Port Moresby, and Darwin or Brisbane. One of the complicating features is that Howland Island and other likely stopping places are not ready to take a land aeroplane. Advice is now being sought from experts about the Pacific route and it may be rejected in favour of a route through the East. It is believed that Mrs Putnam may be a competitor in the New York-Paris race on May 20, 1937, to commemorate the tenth anniversary of Colonel Lindbergh’s flight. The French Government is offering 75,000 dollars for first prize, 50,000 dollars for second, and 25,000 dollars for third. There is a possibility that she will continue to Australia. She is expected to use the new experimental aeroplane built for her at the Lockheed works.