AIRWOMAN'S PROJECT

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 70, 24 March 1937, Page 21

AIRWOMAN'S PROJECT

DARWIN TO CAPE TOWN

SOLO FLIGHT OF 14,000 MILES

(From "The Post's" Representative.)

SYDNEY, March 18,

Mrs. Harry Bonney, the first woman to fly round Australia solo and from Australia to England, has announced a daring pioneering project—a solo flight of 14,000 miles from Darwin to Cape Town. She does not propose to venture ■on the direct Indian Ocean route; her idea is a flight through India and Persia to Cairo, and then south along the east coast of the African continent. She will leave Brisbane on April 9.

The flight which will mark the culmination of more than twelve months' planning and- preparation, will be made in a German Klemm monoplane —the machine in which Mr. N. B. Littlejohn and his bride flew from England on their honeymoon in 1935. Mrs. Bonney has christened her machine "My Little Ship ll"—her first "little ship" was a Gypsy Moth. Mrs. Bonney obtained her pilot's licence in 1930, and she now has nearly 900 flying hours to her credit. Looking round for a flight which had not previously been attempted, Mrs. Bonney planned a cross-water flight, but was unable to finance it. Her husband, who has approved and financed all her flights, suggested: "What's wrong with Africa?" The past twelve months have been devoted to laying down supplies of petrol, obtaining passports, and generally planning rations and clethes for the tour, which Mrs. Bonney says will occupy five weeks, because she wishes to visit some of the I cities of India.

"I like to see something of the countries over which I fly," said Mrs. Bonney, "and a flight to Africa could be done in much less time than I have planned. From Darwin I go to Koepang, then through Java, Singapore, Bangkok, Rangoon, Calcutta, Benares, Agra, Delhi, Jodhpur, Karachi, Jask, Bushire, Bagdad, Rutbar Wells, Cairo, then Nairobi, Tanganyika, Pretoria — where I was born—and Johannesburg '. Cape Town. It will be a nice little jaunt."

She said that she would have "hopped off" for Africa some time ago, but for the fact that, when her machine was overhauled and in order, the seasons for such a flight were not favourable. "Now, however, we are ready," said Mrs. Bonney—who always refers to herself and her aeroplane as "we."