NEXT TASMAN FLIGHT

Evening Star, Issue 19778, 31 January 1928, Page 11

NEXT TASMAN FLIGHT

EARLY NEXT MONTH DRASTIC TESTS TO BE MADE Despite the fact that the Australian Air Board has warned his Ryan monoplane off the Richmond Aerodrome, and has said that no flight will be permitted across the Tasman unless in a seaplane or amphibian machine, Mr P. H. Moody, has determined to make his Tasman flight attempt early nextmonth, according to the latest files of the ‘Sydney Morning Herald-.’ The promoters of the flight assert that they are taking such extensive preliminary precautions that the Commonwealth Director of Civil Aviation will not officially object. No appeal is to be made to the Commonwealth Government or the Defence Department for assistance, monetary or otherwise, in the preparations or conduct of the flight. The pilot of the monoplane will be Mr P. H. Moody, and ho will have with him as wireless operator Mr Osmond H. Jolley, of Sydney and Melbourne. The financial organiser of the undertaking is Mr Frank Goldberg. The Ryan monoplane, which is to be used on this attempt, has been in bond in Sydney for some months. Ine Prime Minister (Mr Bruce), towards the end of last year, informed the then organisers of the flight that the Federal Government would not permit it, as the regulations expressly provided that a flight of more than fifty miles over water should be undertaken by a seaplane, a flying boat, or an amphibian. New Zealand interests were then behind the undertaking, but these have since been acquired in Australia, and the present flight is being organised as an “ All-Australian venture, for the purpose of advertising Australian products and enterprise.” So said Mr Frank Goldberg. He added that a number of prominent commercial men and firms in Sydney and other parts of Australia _ were supporting the venture financially and otherwise. PILOT’S RECORD.

till- Moody has flown over 2,600 hours without having had a serious mishap. He joined the Royal Air horce in 1916, and continued as a pilot until the end of the war. On return to Australia he took up aviation as a profession, and was engaged in a number of commercial flights, covering long distances in machines owned privately. He was for three and a-half years chief pilot with the Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Service, and never had an accident to his machines or passengers whilst so employed. Recently he purchased a station property twentytwo miles distant from Charleville, rnd he has promised his wife that he "M return there and settle down after he has flown to New Zealand. ENDURANCE TESTS.

“ Prolonged tests have shown,” said Mr Moody," “ that the Ryan monoplane, fitted with a Wright Whirlwind radial air-cooled engine, can remain in the air longer than is necessary to ensure the success of the flight from Sydney to New Zealand. We propose flying from Mascot to New Plymouth, which will cut nearly GUO miles off tho route followed by Lieutenant Moncricff and Captain Hood, from Richmond to Wellington. The distance of the proposed flight will he about 1,150 miles, and I believe it can be done in less than twelve hours. I had experience of flying the Ryan monoplane in America, and am convinced that it can maintain a cruising speed of 100 miles per hour for over thirty consecutive hours. This shows that the transtasman flight is a comparatively short one. But we shall not take any unnecessary risks. My American experience convinced'; me that .the Wright engine, after 'running satisfactorily for thirty to forty hours, can be confidently relied on to run continuously with safety for thirty or more hours without developing any fault. If there is any defect in the engine that will be demonstrated before twenty hours’ flying. It, is our intention to fly the monoplane for at least thirty-five to forty hours over land in Australia before attempting the ocean flight. A portion of the land journey will he a long distance endurance flight, that will give the engine and machine a far more severe test than it is likely to have in the transtasman flight.” NO HURRIED PREPARATIONS. “There have been many attempts recently at long distance ocean flights, and when the preparations for these were carefully made in advance the effort was successful; when there were hasty or inadequate preparations there was failure,” emphasised Mr Moody. “The preparations to be made for this flight will be such as to eliminate, as far as practicable, the danger of failure. All the successful flights from America across the Atlantic and from America to Honolulu have' been made with radially air-cooled engines of the Wright Whirlwind type. The engine and machine to he used on our flight have a cruising range of 2,200 miles, at an average speed of 100 miles per hour. Sufficient petrol will be taken on this journey to permit of tho machine remaining aloft for over twenty hours. But the main point is that the flight will not be made across tho Tasman until the prolonged and severe preliminary tests have shown that the engine and machine can be thoroughly relied on for the big adventure.”