TASMAN RACE?

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 102, 27 October 1934, Page 9

TASMAN RACE?

INVITATION TO SCOTT

MOVE IN CHRISTCHURCH

An invitation to fly from Australia to ChristehurcJi will be sent to C. \V. A. Scott and T. Campbell Black, winners of the Centenary Air Bace, or to Mr. A. 0. Edwards, owner of the Comet they flew, if Mr. P. E. Climie, organiser of the Canterbury Progress League and secretary to the Canterbury Aero Club, finds sufficient support for the idea, states the Christehurch "Press." Mr. Climie also considers that it may still be possible to organise a Tasman air race to Christchureh for the racing machines. "A visit from Scott and Campbell Black would give New Zealanders their first chance of seeing a really modern high-speed aeroplane," said Mr. Climio. "I am confident that Christehurch people would turn out in such numbers to see the machine that had won the Centenary Air Race and flown from Australia in six or seven hour's, that wo could promise a really good gate to the pilots.

"However, there has been such interest in the race to Melbourne that I think it is still possible to revive our original scheme for a Tasnian race— straight from Melbourne to Christehureh.

"The proposal was dropped largely because of the criticism of Sir Charles Kingsford Smith, who said that sea flights with one-engined machines were dangerous. His present flight suggests tliat ho has changed his mind about that.

"But even if his objection were still valid, tho Tasman crossing is shorter than the flight across tho Bay of Bengal or that from Singapore to' Darwin, which some of the machines have made; and most of the machines that would enter, if not all, would have two engines, and have shown that they can fly for hundreds of miles on one."

Mr. Climio thinks it likely that the following .competitors in the race would fly to Christehurch if a prizo were offered:—Scott and Campbell Black (Comet); Waller and Cathcart Jones (Comet); Geysendorffer and Asjes (Pander Jager); Stack and Turner (Airspeed Viceroy); and Turner and Pangborn (Boeing).

If tho Mollisons came on to Australia, as late reports indicate they still "may do, they would be certain competitors. So would J. C. Fitzmaurieo and E. Watt Bonar, if they made their projected attempt, on Scott's record. Parmentier and Moll iniglit also be induced to £y over.

"To see such a magnificent collection of aeroplanes, and the close finish that might be expected, many visitors would certainly come to Christehurch," said Mr. Climie, "so that it would be a good thing for the city as well as for flying in New Zealand."