AVIATION IN NEW ZEALAND

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 82, 31 December 1917, Page 4

AVIATION IN NEW ZEALAND

THE YEAR'S PROGRESS IN CANTERBURY.

A review of the closing year would not be complete (says the Christchurch "Star") without a tribute to the founders of the Canterbury Aviation School, which has in a few months of training sent over twenty pilots to reinforce the air on the Allied battlefront. The history of the company is hardly a year old. Floated by a body of citizens as a means of helping to win the war, it surmounted the heartbreaking delays of obtaining aeroplanes and engines and laid out the now well-known aerodrome at Sookburn, where the first flights were made only last June by the newly-arrived instructor, Mr. C. M. Hill. ' Since then, the actual training of candidates for the Royal Flying Corps has been so steady that before ■Christmas twenty-one pupils had obtained thoir pilot's certificates, and tlie school had a waiting list that taxed the services of two instructors. _ XJie school has received the recognition ot the War Office and of the Royal Flying Corps, and has received valuable assistance from the Government and the High Commissioner. The fleet at Sockburn has grown rapidly, and by the end of the year there should bo seven aeroplanes m commission. The construction of machines, in fact, may yet assume tno proportioiis of an industry. Meanwhile- the first consideration has been the training of pupils, and the students' quarters on the grounds have already been extended once to meet tlio increased number of pupils in training at one time. The flying school has been started under happy auspices, and it marks a piece of patriotic enterprise which must have an important influence on the commercial' standing ot Christchurch after the war.