LONG FLIGHT PLANNED

Feilding Star, Volume 9, Issue 3850, 5 October 1932, Page 5

LONG FLIGHT PLANNED

ACT OR AND FILM .MAGNATE AUSTRALIA TO ENGLAND One of the largest commercial flights has been planned by Mr Hal. Roach, the prominent American film producer and actor, M r Arthur Loevv, first vice-president of the Metro-Gold wvn- Mayer Film Corporation, and Captain J. F. Dickson, a well known pilot. The party intended to leave Los Angeles for Australia on September 23 by the Monterey., which is due at Auckland next Monday, and' plan to fly from Australia'to England and later through Europe, Asia and Africa. The machine chosen, the Spirit of Fun, is a. Lockheed Orion with a 450 horse-power Pratt and Whitney Wasp engine. It is a fast model with a cruising speed of 180 and a maximum of 220 miles an hour. The machine has a cruising range of 900 miles and established a passenger flight record between New York and Los Angeles by covering the 2500 miles in 14 hours 45 minutes. Empty, it weighs 23001b5, and 53colbs when fully loaded. Mr Roach, owner of the machine, has made many flights in America, and recently flew from Chicago to Roosevelt. Field, New York, at an average speed of ISO miles an hour. The itinerary in Australia will be from Sydney to Melbourne, Adelaide, Alice Springs, Wyndhnm and Darwin.