TASMAN FLIGHTS

Evening Star, Issue 21719, 14 May 1934, Page 8

TASMAN FLIGHTS

ERA OF REGULAR SERVICE APPROACHING NEW MACHINES SOON AVAILABLE GOULD CROSS IF 50% OF POWER FAILED [Pbr Uurrsn Pebss Association.} WELLINGTON, May 14. Explaining the reason for _ his Tasman-' flight, Mr Ulm, in an interview, explained that he had read in the Press a letter from Mr Forbes to Mr Lyons, in which Mr Forbes stated,among other things, that transTasman flight achievements were doing much to still further strengthen the ties of commerce between the two , countries. He had also read that Mr Lyons was framing a goodwill message to Mr Forbes and the people of New Zealand. Mr Ulm said he wrote to Mr Lyons, saying that he was able to endorse from personal knowledge of the great goodwill that existed between New Zealand and Australia, all- that Mr Forbes said, and he suggested that his letter to Mr Forbes should be flown, across. Mr Lyons accepted with enthusiasm. “ Hence,” said’ Mr Ulm, “ we have arrived on a goodwill flight, bringing to New Zealand messages from the Governor-General of Australia, the Governor of N.S.W., the Governor of Queensland, the Prime Minister of Australia, the Minister of Defence, the Minister of Commerce, the Lord Mayors of Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane, the Federal president of the Returned Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Association, the State president of the N.S.W. Returned Soldiers’ League, the president of the Australian Flying Corps Association, and other officials of the Commonwealth.” .Mr Ulm said when his return flight was completed he would have made flights of the Tasman in the months of September, October, December, February, April, and May, and so would he well on towards completing a survey from the point of view of having flown every month of the year. He was convinced that, we were very close to the time when it would be possible to operate a completely safe, regular air service between Australia and New Zealand. Mr Ulm pointed out that the type of aircraft he was using was not designed for the class of work that would be entailed by a regular service between New Zealand and Australia,- and would not be the type to be used. Shortly there would be available aircraft, cruising at between 150 and 220 miles an hour, capable of accomplishing :tha whole of the journey with 50 per cent, of the power units out of action, and it was such a type, he believed, that would be used in the trans-Tasman service. During the next few weeks he would be submitting to both the Australian and the New Zealand Governments very definite suggestions regarding the establishment of a regular service. Ulm paid a tribute to Mr Wakefield and his company, which is paying the expenses of the return flight; also to the Sydney ‘ Sun,’ which printed a special New Zealand edition on the afternoon of the flight, and delivered it at the ’drome ready to be stowed away in the Faith in Australia. Several hundred copies of this were handed to the Mayor of Wellington this morning, with the suggestion that they should he disposed of for charity, an idea of which Mr Hislop readily approved.