LONDON TO SINGAPORE

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 88, 12 January 1928, Page 9

LONDON TO SINGAPORE

FREE-LANCE FLYING VENTURE TO TEST POSSIBILITIES OF CIVIL AVIATION SORT OF TRAMP SHIP OF THE AH? Two British flying officers have started on a free,lance venture from London to Singa* pore, with the object of making a general reconnaissance of civil flying prospects. By Telegraph.—press association. » Copyright. London,. January 10. Flying-Officers Newell and Vincent, accompanied by a mechanic-and photographer, left Stag Lane Aerodrome in two three-seater Siddeley aeroplanes for Singapore, via Marseilles, Brindisi, Athens, Mesopotamia, India, Burma, and the Malay States, taking a woman passenger, Mrs. Wise-Parker, as far as Cairo.

The flight is a free-lance venture, with' the object of making a general reconnaissance of civil flying prospects and the exploitation of the possibilitities of air' survey by means of aerial photographs, the collection of flying data, and the stimulation of interest therein by means of lectures and a demonstration of the use of aircraft in spraying crops and mosquito-infest-ed waters. The pilots intend to pick up passengers and special cargo and become a sort of tramp-ship of . the air, as the opportunities offer, for operating chiefly in India, Burma, Ceylon, and the Malay States. SMITH’S ATTEMPT-AT AN • ENDURANCE RECORD San Franciso, January 10. The supervisors of Mills- Field Airport have ordered the- board runway to be lengthened to 750 ft. in preparation for Captain Kingsford Smith’s coming attempt at an endurance record flight, planned to take place within a few weeks. The ’plane has been overhauled and its petrol capacity increased. AIRSHIP RlOO EXPERIMENTAL FLIGHTS ACROSS ATLANTIC - London,'January' 10. The airship RlOO is to be; sold to a company which Commander Burney is organising for experimental transAtlantic flights prior to forming a £7,000,000 company to run a regujar service between Britain, Canada and the United States, crossing from Eng-, land to North America in 48 and returning in 38 hours. Commander Burney explains that the airship mail surcharges will be 6d. an ounce for letters and 2s. a pound for parcels. Passenger, fares will be £l2O in 'single berth, £lOO in . two-berth, and - £80; in a four-berth cabin. If RIOO’s flights succeed it is being proposed to build a new, larger and faster type of air'ship with a maximum . speed of 100 and a -cruising speed of 95 miles per hour, with a cruising endurance of 6400 miles, carrying 168 passengers.