AVIATION

Greymouth Evening Star, 18 November 1935, Page 12

AVIATION

SEARCH FOR SMITH.

fby CABLE —PRESS ASSN. —COPYRIGHT.]

SINGAPORE. November 10. Officers of the Royal Air Force beliovo that, the aeroplane, sighted at Takuapa, in. Siam. at. 7.30 a.in. on November S, could only have been that of Sir Charles Kingsford Smith. Vildebeestes and Singapore 111. flying boats are seaching. the area. Leaflets, printed in dialects, are being dropped from the air instructing the villagers to search the jungle and telling them that they will be rewarded for news. BROADBENT’S OPINION.

SYDNEY, November 1.7

Broadbent, commenting on the report of a plane being sighted over Takuapa at 7.30 a.m. on November 8, said he wished he could believe it was Kingsford Smith’s, but it seemed much more likely to have been the plane he was flying. He would have been over the vicinity where the report came from between 8.15 a.m. and 8.30 a.m. on November 8. Scotty Allan, however, in a special despatch from Singapore to the “Sunday Sun” expresses the opinion that the reports that an Altair plane was sighted flying low near Takuapa are reliable and he is still optimistic.

TAYLOR DELAYED.

SYDNEY, November 17.

The Gannet plane, after leaving Narromine early yesterday, battled against fierce dust storms until it was forced to land at Bourke until the visibility improved. (Recd. November 18, Noon.) SYDNEY, November 18. Following the illness of Captain Taylor at Cloncurry, the search for Kingsford Smith by the Gannet monoplane is likely to be cancelled. Taylor, who is suffering from fever, advised the abandonment of the mission, but Stannage telegraphed to the Minister of Defence, seeking permission to proceed to search, without Taylor.

JEAN BATTEN.

RIO DE JANIERO, November 16.

Jean Batten had been taken to Rio and is being feted on every hand. The press relegated the Italo —Ethiopian war news to second importance, reporting details of her flight. Congress passed a congratulatory resolution, and the British Embassy honoured her with a reception. After a fifteen hours’ sleep, the aviatrix received journalists. She said she was proceeding to Buenos Aires ih two or three days. She explained she made the forced landing because of a combination of head winds after she left Bahia and a leaking petrol tank.

HOLLAND’S AIR FORCE.

THE HAGUE, November 17.

The Government has ordered seven million sterling worth of Fokker fighting planes, with a speed, of 223 miles an hour.

TARANAKI MISHAP. NEW PLYMOUTH, 17. A mishap to a private Avro aeroplane occurred in the Bell Block district, about a mile from the aerodrome this afternoon, in which nobody was injured, and the plane suffered only very slight damage. C. Parker, the cycling champion, part-owner of the machine, was making a test flight in a very high wind, when a breakage caused the engine to cut put suddenly.. Parker had the choice of several paddocks to glide to a landing, but they were all too small for safety, and he chose the best. Approaching some telegraph lines and a hedge, he struck an air pocket, and the machine sank too low to clear the wires. The pilot then decided to attempt to glide between the wires and the hedge, but did not quite clear the hedge, the machine “.sitting”’ on the hedge. Parker climbed out uninjured.