AMUNDSEN'S PLANE

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 118, 14 November 1925, Page 7

AMUNDSEN'S PLANE

N2S RETAINED IN NORWAY

CAPTAIN WILKINS'S SOUTH

POLAR PLAN;,

(tmiTEb rttss- Assocufion—copiftlo&T.)

(AUSTRALIAN-NEW ZEALAND GABLE ASSOCIATION.)

(Received 14th November noon.)

OSLO, 13th November*

Captain Wilkihß's final negotiations to purchase Koald Amundsen's aei'6plane N25 have failed, aB the Americans offered a higher price than he could. Lieutenant Ellsworth cabled from New York guaranteeing to collect sufficient money in the United States to enable the Norwegian Aero Club to purchase and keep the aeroplane. The club accepted the otter, bo no sale is now possible.

Captain G. H. WilUins, U.C., of South Australia, learned to fly in 1910 and was with Stephaiisson's Expedition in the Arctic, and on his return in 1917 joined the Australian' Flying Corps and won the Military Cross. He attempted a flight to Australia to win the £10,000 offered by the Commonwealth Government—Won .by the Eoss brothers-T-but did not get further than Crete owing to a breakdown of his engine. In 1920 he went With Shackletoft in the Quest as haturalist, and has lately been exploring the wilds of Australia's Far North on behalf of the British Museum. He desired to purchase N25, Amundsen's 'plane, Which came back from the famouM flight towards the North , Pole from Spitsbergen in May this year after a frightful struggle with the ice. Lieutenant Ellsworth was on board the N24, which was crushed in' the pack ice, but escaped from certain death with Amundsen in the N2s— •a Dormer "Wall" seaplane. Captain Willtins \wintod the N25 for an exploration of the South Polar regions which he had planned, stai'tinjj. from the Bay of Whales and flyine .1500 miles enst,; to Grahams Land. The object of the expedition was to determine many scientific problems connected with the Antarctic Continent.