ENGLAND TO AUSTRALIA

Greymouth Evening Star, 10 November 1931, Page 6

ENGLAND TO AUSTRALIA

BUTLER’S NEW RECORD. [BY CABLE—PRESS ASSN.—COPYBIGHT.] DARWIN, November 9. Btitler,..who left Koepang at 10.20 o’clock this morning, local time, has arrived. He landed here at 4.22 p.m. Butler has beaten Scott’s record for the Anglo-Australian flight by one hour arid foi'ee-quarfors. While being welcomed by Mayor Brown, and others, Butler asked the officials controlling the flight, whether he had beaten Scott and whether he could telegraph to his mother saying that lie had arrived safely. An affirmative reply w r as given to each question. Butler had a' hazardous flight over the Timor Sea, encountering frequent rainstorms and strong wind, with bad visibility.

STORY OF FLIGHT (Recd. November 10, 11 a.m.) DARWIN, November 7. Butler is leaving at daylight to-day for Newcastle Waters. Interviewed, he said the trip -was most enjoyable. He was not fatigued in the slightest, and had little adventure on the flight. He was held up half a day at Brindisi by the police, and had 16 gallons of petrol stolen at Akyab, and a magneto tampered with at Naples. He was also quarantined one night at Jask on account of cholera, at Basra,. the last stopping place. He could have made a much faster trip if there had been moonlight nights, but he would not risk disaster by flying in the dark. The worst part was between Allahabad and Calcutta, monsoonal rains forcing the Dutch air mail to remain on the ground. The Calcutta aerodrome was under water when he took off. The trip was good fun.

HOMELAND CONGRATULATIONS RUGBY, November 9. Lord Lbnderry, Air Minister, sent a message of warmest congratulations on behalf of the Air Council, to Charles A. Butler “on the completion of your splendid flight and establishing a new record from England to Australia.” Butler’s official time is 9 days *2 hours 29 minutes from Lympne to Port Darwin, and he therefore beat the existing record by 1 hour 42 minutes. HINKLER’S JOURNEY. KINGSTON, itfoyember 9. t After being delayed, almost .a week, due to bad flying, weather, Hinkler took off from Maracaibo, en route for Para (Brazil). BRITAIN’S NEW ’PLANES. RUGBY, November 9. A notable departure is the design of British air liners will be made with the fleet of eight four-engined Armstrong-Siddeley huge monoplanes, which have been ordered by the Imperial Airways for the Cairo-Cape Town route. Hitherto, British air liners have been biplanes. The new air liners with a speed of 145 miles an hour, will be the fastest air liners in the world. The wings and body will be made entirely of strip steel.

INSTRUCTOR KILLED (Reed. November 10, 9.30 a.iri.) LONDON, November 9. Capt. E. A. Jones, one of the best known flying. instructors,. was killed, ■\yhen an airplane piloted by. Flight Lt. Johnson, landing at Henflon. Aerodrome, nosedived at sixty feet. Johnson was Slightly injured. FASCIST VENGEANCE BERLIN, November 9. “Vorwarts” publishes a sensational Story that the Italian Government was aWare for months of Debosi’s intentions to scatter anti-Fascist pamphlets in Rome. Air Force machines were ready night and day to intercept and shoot him down. Two army planes machine-gunned him. Parts of his bul-let-marked aeroplane were washed up on the coast and secretly taken to Rome. N.Z. MAIL SERVICE. WELLINGTON, November 9. Flying under the auspices of the New,.Zealand Air. League, one of the Air Travel Company’ planes will leave Invercargill for Auckland on Thursday, calling, en, route at Dunedin, Christchurch, Blenheim, Wellington, Palmerston North, and New Plymouth. It will convey mails to connect with the steamers for Sydney, from where they will be transported by plane, arriving in London on December 3Thp Postmaster-General has given official recognitioh to this particular air mail service in the Dominion. All of the mail matter carried by the plane will have affixed a special “Air Mail” stamp, the first issue of this character in the Dominion. To mark the occasion, the Postmaster-General is posting by this service a special letter to the Postmaster-General at London.