AERIAL FLIGHT

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 61, 15 March 1924, Page 11

AERIAL FLIGHT

SYDNEY TO NEW ZEALAND. ' (fROM OUR OWN CORRBSPOM3EHIO . SYDNEY, 6th March At various limes aviators have outlined plans for aerial flights from Australia to New Zealand, or vice versa but none of them has. so far materialised. There has just arrived in Sydney from Auckland an .enthusiastic young man-Mr. H. A. J. Wilson-who declares that the long-projected flight will be an accomplished fact within the next month or two. He has come here according to his own accounts to the Press, to make the final arrangements for this aerial venture Mr Wil son has told the newspaper interviewers' that he has had aerial experience and intends' to make the trip as observer His partner in the enterprise is Lieutenant. If. S. Briggs, who-is at present a. pilot a South Australian mail service. Lieutenant Briggs will pilot the plane. "However, our great difficulty Will be to get a suitable machine," said Mr. Wilson. .'We hope to secure a.SopwithWallaby biplane fitted With a-375 RollsKoyce engine—the ' identical'V .machine' used by Captain Matthews on his attempted flight from England'to Aus-' tralia. This machine, said Mr. Wilson, would have a cruising speed of 115: miles an hour, and could make 'the. flight to New Zealand in about 10 hours .The route from Sydney has not yet been decided upon, but as far as has been arranged the 'plane will fly either to Auckland or New Plymouth, both' distances being approximately 1000 miles. Everything, however, depends on the extent of the assistance given to the project. If a 'plane is not available and if arrangements for financing the flight fall through, the attempt will have to be abandoned, for neither Wilson nor Briggs is a rich man. ■ "We have, Mr. Wilson said, "been given very little assistance or encouragement by the civil authorities, and sometimes the rebuffs have been very disheartening. Since 1921 we have been considering the flight, and have been making continual observations of weather conditions." The time for the departure is fixed so that wo can take advantage of the advent of the British Fleet. "We will leave here two days after the departure of the fleet from Sydney, .so' that they will be underneath" us," Mr. Wilson said. "We may need assistance." Before leaving Auckland Mr. Wilson placed the details of his project before the Governor-General (Viscount Jellicoe), who generously wrote to. Admiral Field telling him of the- flight and asking that all possible assistance be rendered. Many airmen have considered the details for this pioneer flight, and it is generally considered that .little danger is attached to the venture. ' In fact, several applications have already been made to Mr.- Wilson for the position of navigator on the journey. [The latest cabled advice from Australia was to the effect that the flightwould have to be postponed for several months in order that a suitable machine might be secured.]