Nearing End Of World Flight

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31091, 21 June 1966, Page 2

Nearing End Of World Flight

CV.Z.P.A. Reuter—Copt/rtflht? LISBON, June 20. Miss Sheila Scott will leave Lisbon for London today in her single-engined Piper Comanche to complete the first solo flight around the world by a Briton.

Miss Scott landed in Portugal last night after a sixhour flight from Lages, in the Azores. She left London on May 18 to attempt the longest solo flight ever. But bad weather, mechanical, and radio failures caused delays on almost every section of the route. If she arrives on time today, Miss Scott should become the new holder of the round-the-world air speed record for women. When she reaches London she will have flown 28,656 miles in 33 days—an over-all average speed of slightly more than 36 miles an hour. The American woman, Mrs Jerry Mock, established the present record of 32.77 m.pJL in 1964, but over a considerably shorter route. Miss Scott said in Lisbon: “I have broken 10 speed records up to now. But I have not yet claimed them and therefore they are not yet official.” Miss Scott, who has won 40 international air trophies since learning to fly seven years ago and is Britain’s first woman helicopter pilot, added: “One gets more experience in four weeks of a round-

the-world solo flight than in a lifetime. I could do it againstarting next week.’*