AVIATION

Greymouth Evening Star, 19 December 1936, Page 13

AVIATION

ADELAIDE RACE WINNERS. [BY CABLE—PRESS ASSN. —COPYBIGHT.] ADELAIDE, December 18. The Victorian pilot, C. D. Pratt, who conducts a flying school at deelong, won the handicap section of the centenary air race to-day. The final stage from Melbourne to Adelaide was completed to : day in bad conditions, fog, and mist causing several competitors to make forced landings on the way. The speed section was won by the Queensland Pilot J. W. Collins, who flew a Percival Vega Gull machine from scratch. Pratt flew a Klemm Eagle, the property of a New South Wales grazier. A Victorian, A. R. Ansett, finished . second in the handicap section with a Forterfield machine. A Queensland 1 man, P. Moody, flying a Stinson - Reliant, was runner-up in the speed' ■event in which C. D. Pratt was third. EMPIRE BOATS. [BRITISH OFFICIAL WIRELESS.] RUGBY, December 17. Two of the flying-boats of the Empire fleet, which are being built by the Short Company for Imperial Airways, are intended' for long-range experlinents. The first of these craft is now in Southampton being prepared for long-distance trials. It is equipped with a fuel tank of 2320 gallons capacity, and at a cruising speed of 160 miles an hour its possible range in still air is 3300 miles. The crew numbers three, and the commercial loads consists of lOCOlbs avoirdupois of mails. There will be no passenger accommodation in this craft, which, differs from the standard boats in the new fleet by being laden up to a weight of 45,0001b5, against 40,5001bs of the standard craft.