AVIATION

Greymouth Evening Star, 25 March 1929, Page 9

AVIATION

SYDNEY—ENGLAND ATTEMPT

(Australian Press Assn. —United Service.) (By Cable—Press Assn—Copyright.) SYDNEY, March 25. Three new propellors will be fitted to-day to the Southern Cross. Circumstances permitting the flight to Wyndham will begin on Thursday. PACIFIC FLIGHT GRANT. SYDNEY, March 24. The Bavin Government has paid over a cheque for £4,500 to Kingsford Smith and Ulm, representing the previous Government’s guarantee to enable the Pacific flight to be undertaken. Mr Bavin paid his Government’s contribution of £2500 last November. AUSTRALIAN VENTURE. LONDON, March 23. Vickers have received a cablegram from their agents to the effect that Moir’s forced landing was due to engine trouble, which occurred shortly after setting out on the two thousand miles non-stop run from Benghazi. Slight damage was done to one wing tip, and also to the under-carriage. Vickers have telegraphed instructions to repair the damage forthwith. It is understood that aid is forthcoming from an R.A.F. aerodrome in the vicinity.

FILM-STUNT TRAGEDY

NEW YORK, March 23.

At Los Angeles, Philip Jones, mechanic, was killed, but Al Wilson, the noted film stunt flyer escaped death by leaping from a parachute, when a bombing plane they were using filming a war picture went into a tail spin. It was the final picture of a series of motion pictures. Cameras in two other planes photographed the fall. ACROSS THE ATLANTIC. (Received March 25, Noon). LONDON, March 24. Seville messages states that the Spanish aeroplane, Jesus Delgranpoder, took off this afternoon on the Trans-Atlantic flight to South America piloted by Captains Jimenez and Iglesas. The start was made in great secrecy. The pilots refused to give a definite indication of the course, which may be Havana, thence Brazil or direct to Rio de Janiero. The only food is mineral water and chocolate.

DISSATISFIED IRISHMAN.

LONDON, March 24. Fitzmaurice (one of the three who first flew across the Atlantic from East to West), has left for America, because he is “unable to find employment.” • He added: “The Free State Government turned down my suggestions and ideas. If I had been a foreigner I would have been listened to.” He intends to take up aviation in America. AIRMAN’S ESTATE. LONDON, March 24. The lone flyer, MacDonald, who perished in the attempt to fly the Atlantic last October, left £5929. ZEPPELIN’S TRIP. e BERLIN, March 24. Preparations were completed early this morning for a start on the flight of the Graf Zeppelin for Palestine. The return route will be longer than the trans-Atlantic journey. It will carry forty passengers, including the President and several members of the Reichstag. HAMILTON ACCIDENT. HAMILTON, March 24. While landing after a flight at Rukuhia yesterday afternoon an Avro Avian light aeroplane, piloted by Lieut. W. H. Lett, of the GoodwinChichester Aviation Company, was damaged. The undercarriage and •propellor were smashed and . the wings were broken. Neither Lieut. Lett, nor a young man carried as a passenger, was hurt.