AVIATION

Greymouth Evening Star, 29 October 1931, Page 9

AVIATION

FLIGHT TO EGYPT. [BY CABLE —PBESS ASSN. —COPYRIGHT.] LONDON, October 27. The fliers, Gayford and Brett, are approaching Tunis. They are behind time, having been delayed by head winds. They are in a Royal Air Force Fairey-Napier long-distancel mono, plane, and left Cranwell aerodrome at 6.45 this morning on a non-stop flight of 2857 miles to the Abu Sueir aerodrome in Egypt, where they are expected to arrive at midday to-morrow. They Will make a return flight on November 6, reaching Malta that day, and continuing to Cranwell on the following day. At a latei 1 date aif attempt will be made upon the existing non-stop record of 4912 miles, when a flight will be made to South Africa. The monoplane is equipped with a normal service Napier Lion engine. It has a wing span of 82 feet, its length being 48 feet, and equipped with wireless and an apparatus called “Robot Pilot.” The machine passed over Paris shortly after 10 o’clock, and is expected to pass Tunis at dusk this evening. Later reports state that the plane was over the Straits of Bonifacio at six o’clock this evening, flying blind in thick clouds. r RUGBY, October 28. The Royal Air Force long range monoplane reached Abu Sueir (Egypt) early this afternoon, successfully com pleting the non-stop flight of nearly 3000 miles.

ENGLAND TO AUSTRALIA. RUGBY, October 27. Early this morning, Leslie and Kenneth Hamilton, two brothers, left Lympne in an attempt to break the' existing records foi* the flight to Australia and back. They are using an all-British Puss-moth machine, in which Captain Barnard last year, flew to Malta and back in one day. They hope to reach Karachi in about three days, and Port Darwin,. Australia, within seven days. After 24 hours’ rest, they intend to begin the return journey. VIENNA, October 28. The Hamiltons have abandoned the flight, and are returning to England, to make a fresh start. HINKLER’S NEW RECORD. NEW YORK, Octobei- 27. Bert Hinkler arrived at Kingston, Jamaica, to-day, on a non-stop flight in a Puss-Moth plane, from Long Island, of fifteen hundred miles. Hinkler’s American representatives asserted that, following the Australian’s sudden unannounced flight to Jamaica the aviatoi- would probably continue to Natal, in Brazil, where it is believed he will then decide whether or not to fly to Africa, as he had been hoping to do for some time. . It is claimed that Bert Hinkler’s flight has set a new distance record for a Puss-Moth plane, beating the record of Miss Amy Johnson for a flight in*a similar aeroplane, when she went from London to Warsaw.