LONE AIRMAN’S FEAT

Evening Star, Issue 22106, 13 August 1935, Page 7

LONE AIRMAN’S FEAT

TO AFRICA AND BACK IN A DAY AN AMAZING ACHIEVEMENT. Alone and in attire more suitable for a snort motor drive than a recordbreaking air trip, Captain E. W. Pereival, the British aircraft designer, performed an amazing feat in a light aeroplane. He journeyed to Africa and back in a day ? covering approximately 2,300 miles m 14h 30min flying time. His times were:— Outward.—Gravesend 1.30 a.m.. Oran 8.40 a.m. Homeward.—Oran 11 a.m., Croydon 6.20 p.m. Captain Percival flew his Percival Gull machine of the latest type, titled with a 200' h.p, Gipsy engine, and his speed for the trip averaged over 180 miles per hour. His flying clothing consisted of a blue lounge suit and trilby hat—with a cardigan for cold spells. For refreshments on the journey h» had one sandwich and some coffee. Ha lunched at Oran and dined at home in London. During his brief stay in Africa Captain Percival found time to sell an .aeroplane for delivery there in July. DID NOT FEEL TIRED. On landing at the end of the journey he remarked: “ I did the whole trip without any anxiety, and I don’t feel the least bit tired, “It was just a question of demonstrating what a modern cabin aero-i plane can do. ■ “ It is a perfectly standard machine, except for the extra petrol tank, which gave me fuel sufficient for 1,850 miles. “ A pilot carrying two passengers could have done the same trip, making pne stop each way and taking -about an hour more than 1 did. “ After leaving Gravesend I bad to get above the cloud-bank approaching the coast. “After passing*over the Channel h did not see the ground again until oyer the Pyrenees. I was flying above' the moonlit clouds at about 9,000 ft. “I had made allowance for a 35 m.p.h. beam wind from the west, and at my first landfall I was only about a mile off my course. That was 3J hours after leaving Gravesend, FRIENDS SURPRISED. “At Oran it was completely ovew cast, very hot, and muggy. 1 .surprised friends there by telephoning them and announcing 1 had flown from London for breakfast. “ Coming back the wind was still westerly, and I was flying some 4,000 to 5,000 feet, climbing to 12,000 ft to get over the Pyrenees. “ I struck the English coast between Newhaven and Eastbourne.” Captain Percival declared he felfc less tired than if he had driven » motor car 100 miles. ■ “On the road,” he remarked, “ thousands of cars are doing things unexpectedly which you have 1 mentally to be in readiness to deal with. “On my African trip I met only two planes in the air, and they wer« nearly three-quarters of a mile away from me.”