A NEW RECORD

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 96, 20 October 1936, Page 51

A NEW RECORD

TRANSATLANTIC SOLO

MRS. MARKHAM'S TRIUMPH

(From "The Post's" Representative.)

LONDON, September 12,

Mrs. Beryl Markham's daring challenge to' North Atlantic weather earned success for a flight which, in a singleengined aeroplane unequipped with radio, must remain an adventure even when the sun shines and the air is calm. Eighteen hundred miles of open sea separate Ireland from Newfoundland along the route she followed. She flew through storm after storm. Head winds held her back, and forced up her fuel consumption. She was obliged to fly low instead of at the more economical heights . several thousand feet up, and again fuel consumption climbed. ' Finally, after passing over i a fog-shrouded Newfoundland, Mrs. Markham, with fuel at. the point of exhaustion, made a heavy landing in an exiguous clearing at Baleine, on the north-east shore of Cape Breton Island. She had pulled off a 500-to-one chance. In doing so she accomplished the first westward solo crossing of the North Atlantic by a woman, and set a new world record for the longest feminine solo non-stop flight. In all, she flew about 2700 miles from Abingdon, England. Her -flight was magnificent, but in 1936 it is not aviation. North Atlantic waters will not thus be conquered for the air mail and the passenger aeroplane. Yet the courage of the pilot, the skill with which she kept a perfect course across the ocean in spite of appalling storms, and the determination that kept her going on when still within easy range of Ireland and a safe return, compel admiration. Once again, too, a pilot has shown how the modern British light aeroplane and its engine will respond to the most ex-treme-demands.

Mrs., Markham's aeroplane is a Percival "Vega Gull cabin monoplane which normally seats four. For her flight extra fuel tank^s were installed in the fuselage, bringing up her maximum, range in calm air to approximately 4000 miles, cruising at 153 miles an hour. Its engine is a De Havilland Gipsy Six 200 h.p. six-cylinder aircooled unit. Mrs. Markham's flight is the ninth successful transatlantic flight made by Gipsy engines.