AIR FLIGHTS

Evening Star, Issue 19614, 21 July 1927, Page 5

AIR FLIGHTS

ENGLAND TO AMERICA AND BACK CAPTAIN COURTNEY'S ATTEMPT BRITISH PRESTIGE AT STAKE. Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. LONDON, July 20. Captain Courtney is expected to start at noon to-day from Southampton in an attempt to recover British air prestige. It is calculated that tho flight tcTNew York will occupy 43 hours and tho return 40 hours, due to the prevailing westerly wind, which has contributed to American successes Courtnc? will bo accompanied by Navigation Officer Downey and Engineer R. F. Little. START POSTPONED WIRELESS ADJUSTMENT NECESSARY. LONDON, July 20. Captain Courtney’s start has been postponed till Thursday. As a result C! f a trial flight this morning, the test wireless was found to require adjustments which cannot be completed to dav. [A cablegram from London on July !.j stated that Captain Courtney intended to attempt the first aeroplane (light westwards across the Northern Atlantic to St. Johns, Newfoundland, and then to New York, where he will refuel for the return flight. The machine- is a Dornier type designed in Germany. Efforts to obtain a British machine failed. The ’ Dornier equipment has a wireless range of nearly 1,000 miles, and the machine will be able to float for a considerable time if they are compelled to descend. Captain Courtney was rejected when he attempted to join the Air .force in war time because he wore glasses, -and would be valueless as a pilot. He thou enlisted as a mechanic mid returned from Franco with the rank of flight-commander, In 1010 ho was brought down by Germany’s famous fighting ace, Immclmann, after a gallant combat. He is one of the most intrepid aviators, and seems to bear a charmed life, his principal occupation being tho testing of new planes and, dr devices, work of which a cautions man would prefer to leave to somebody else. He recently demonstrated in Berlin the autogiro plane, invented by the Spaniard Do la Ciorva.]

SCHNEIDER CUP BRITAIN’S HIGH-SPEED PLANES. LONDON, July 20. Experts are promised the opportunity shortly of seeing in flight tliree highspeed aeroplanes—the Crusader, tho Gloster, and the Snpermariue 85—with which tho Air Ministry hopes to wrest from Italy the coveted Schneider Cup. It is expected that the swiftest machine will have a maximum speed of 300 miles an hour. LONDON TO LONDON CANADIAN PROJECT. OTTAWA, July 19. Captain W. R. Maxwell and Captain B. Tully, of the Ontario Air Service, have been chosen to make a flight a few weeks hence from London (Ontario) to London (England).—A. and N.Z. and ‘ Sun ’ Cable. ROUND ENGLAND WOMAN AVIATOR’S FLIGHT. LONDON, July 20. From a sleeping bag alongside a tiny Avroavian, Mrs Elliot Lynn crept out at 3 o’clock yesterday morning from AVoodford Aerodrome and cranked up the engine unaided. She set off for a flight round England before the aerodrome staff was awake. For the first hour she steered by the moon. By 9 o’clock she had visited thirty places, tho southerly limit being Southampton. She made seventy-nine landings, and refuelled seven times. She lost her map overboard at Gosport, but replaced it at tho next stop. "It was a glorious trip, with the sole object of demonstrating tho dependability of the aeroplane in business and pleasure,” she said. “I covered 1,250 miles, and landed at 7.30 in the evening at Nowcastlo-on-Tync.”

ACROSS THE TASMAN £5,000 PRIZE PROPOSED. MELBOURNE, July 20. The president of the Aero Club announces that he has requested the Commonwealth Government to grant a prize of £5,000 for a flight from Australia to Now Zealand. He added: “ Unless Australia hurries. New Zealand will heat ns in the flight. The Dominion Government has already offered to take over a machine at fourfifths of the price, which will spur on Now Zealanders to attempt the flight.”