AVIATION IN 1931

Evening Star, Issue 20995, 8 January 1932, Page 2

AVIATION IN 1931

REVIEW OF THE YEAR NOTABLE FLIGHTS MANY RECORDS BETTERED [By H. L. Chisholm.] I. In aviation, 1931 has been a year of great achievement. During that twelve months of effort, man has flown at more than 400 miles an hour for the first time; ho has circled the world in a little over eight days; and the Pacific Ocean has been crossed from Japan to Americar without a -stop. Those are but a few of the great performances that the year has added to the annals of aviation. Records have been wrecked, and successive aviators have beaten each other’s times along tho London-Cape Town and London-Australia routes. Great Britain has clone more than creditably, although America has done more of note than last year. Great Britain, haying proved herself so immensely superior to all other nations in tho realm of speed, has won the Schneider Trophy outright, merely using an improved model of the' machine which vanquished the Italians two years previously; and having achieved that, put the world speed record up to the 407 m.p.h. mark. It would have been a tragedy if the nation had had to accept tho dictum of the Prime Minister that the money Could not be found to defend the trophy against the challenge of covetous rivals, and for her gift of £IOO,OOO, the Empire should be eternally grateful to Lady Houston, even although it might not approve of the manner in which it was given. Britain had the pilots, but not the politicians.

Transatlantic flights have proved a popular feature of the year’s aviation. General Italo Balbo opened the year with his great formation flight to Rio, in conception, the greatest formation flight since the Far East cruise of the Royal Air Force in 1927, but only ten of the fourteen machines with which he left Italy were able to cross the ocean in formation, and the effort cost five lives. Italy was more than satisfied, and is now planning a round-the-world flight with two dozen machines. The itinerary for this flight, as Balbo conceives it at present, embraces a journey to Australia.

Another Atlantic flight, admittedly a leisurely one, which claimed the attention of the flying world, was that of the giant flying boat, the Dornior Do.X, which began at Switzerland in November, 1930, and ended at Rio de Janeiro in June. Later it flew to New York, and it is still there. Negotiations for the purchase_ of the huge vessel by PanAmerican Airways, which would then use it to operate a service, have been in progress, but should the craft be sold, it will probably make a return flight across the Atlantic, thus being the first heavier-than-air machine to fly the ocean in both directions. Long jumps, from America to Europe were a feature of the summer months of the Northern Hemisphere. Hoiriis and Hillig hopped from Newfoundland to Germany on their way to Denmark in June, and in July Magyar and Endes reached Hungary from the same starting place. A fortnight later, Boardman and Polando, two Americans, flew from New York to Istanbul, Turkey, a nonstop flight of 5,014 miles, which beat the world distance record, 4,912 miles, established by Costes and Bellonte, in a flight from Paris to Moulart, China. France immediately made three efforts ot regain this record, but all failed, and in their second effort, Le Brix and Mesmin were killed, Doret escaping. The flights'of the year, 1 think, might be placed in the following order:— 1. —Post and Gatty: Round the world. 2. —Hinkler: South America-Africa. 3. Herndon and Pangborn: JapanAmerica. 4 . —Boardman and Polando: New York-Istanbul.

s.—Chichester: New Zealand-Japan. The effort of the American, Wiley Post, and his Australian -navigator, Harpld Gatty, of flying round the earth in 8d 15h 51min, was pre-eminent. It was a great ordeal for pilot, navigator,, engine, and machine, and all survived it. Undertaken in vile conditions, in a small Puss Moth, the flight of Hinkler from Natal, Brazil, to Bathurst, Africa, more than 2,000 miles, was a very wonderful achievement. Superb navigation during the whole of the twenty-two-hour flight across the acean saved Hinkler’s life, for he had a very small safety margin, and the amazing thing is that the first flight from America across the South Atlantic should be accomplished by a lone Englishman in a light aeroplane. Like Lindbergh’s flight to Paris, it was a foolhardy flight, but so were all the early Atlantic flights, and we honour the men who made them, whether they succeeded or not.

Herndon and Pangborn’s Pacific flight was twice as long an ocean flight as Hinkler’s, but I placed it below his because of the superior equipment, the extra pilot, and the islands, which made navigation less difficult. Of the Northern Atlantic flights, that of Boardman and Polando must take first place, but when the aviators had once hit Europe their troubles were nearly over. By breaking the non-stop record they gain their place in the list. Chichester’s flight is unlike the others in the list. It was not made in gigantic hops, but in flights of a few hundred miles. Before he could undertake it, Chichester had to learn to fly a seaplane, and he spent months m mastering navigation and wireless. His crossing of the Tasman Sea, from Parengarenga to Norfolk Island, from Norfolk Island to Lord Howe Island, and from there to Jervis Bay were but hazardous adventures, the targets to which he was navigating being but specks in the ocean. For the first and second hops he has already been honoured with the first award of the Johnston Memorial Trophy for the best feat of navigation by a British airman flying in a civilian capacity. During the whole of the flight, Chichester had nearly every mishap conceivable from a jammed hand to a complete crash, and the fact that lie reached Japan is in itself a tribute to his resourcefulness and perseverance. Other flights worthy of mention during the year wore those of Miss Amy Johnson and Mr C. S. Humphreys, from London to Tokio and back; the Lindberghs, from America to Asia; Ahrertberg, from Norway to the ice cap, to search for Cortauld, and back; and Guy Menzies’s solo flight across the Tasman. The London-Capc Town record was broken and brought to six and a-half days by the late Lieutenant-commander Glen Kidston, and broken again by Gordon Store and Miss Peggy Salaman by more than a day. Australia has also been brought nearer to London than formerly, by the paring down of the record time. Kingsford Smith lost both his records to Mr C. W. A. Scott, who in turn for-

felted his record for the flight to England to Mr J. A. Mollison, who reached England in 8 days 21 hours 15 minutes, and the England-Australia record to Mr C. N. Butler, who accomplished the journey in 9 days 2 hours 29 minutes in a Compcr Swift. Outstanding achievements in the realm of gliding were the crossings of the English Channel by Beardmore and by Kronfeld, who made the two-way journey.

(To be concluded to-morrow )