JONES’S CORNER

Greymouth Evening Star, 18 February 1937, Page 10

JONES’S CORNER

AVIATORS KNOW IT. . ' v never find it on any map, but it is one of the major points of interest for navigators of the. big Clipper aeroplanes flying between Honolu-lu-and. California. . _ //• . /‘J.ones’s Corner’/ is. its. ,;name. ; . It marks the point jh .the heavens above mid-ocean where the Clippers change their courses' to . cut across ,'the; Great Circle route between Hawaii and San Francisco; // /./-/ ,/' '

: ’Navigators speak' of Jones'S Corner aS'being Lat. 35-N? and. 145 W., but to,, the. landlubber it -is easier to locate, the. .unmarked spot w.ith the aid of a ruler and pencil. Draw a straight, line connecting San .’Francis co anti/Hawaii.. About 306 miles north of; the midpoint of this line place a dot; That’s* Jpnes’s Corner accurately enough fOr all purposes except navigating a Clipper! ////// Jones’s Corner is designated on no official charts; /Not even an “X idarks the spot”’ is shown, But to Clipper crews it: marks the point where their giant.aeroplanes “turn the■corner” to “fly'.down” to San Francisco when eu route :from this mid-Pacific American city. It also marks the point where the. aeroplanes “turn down” to Hawaii 'when-coming from. California. Strangely enough to non-navigators, aeroplanes dq not fly a straight line between HawaiLand California. They fly north of the line to find favourable winds and to lessen the distance by taking advantage of the earth’s curvature/"

No one seems to know how the midocean' spot came to be named tor the Jones family. No Jones was a member of the first Clipper to make the flight. No Jones has ever acted as navigator of any of the aeroplanes since they, began flying the Pacific. But Jones’s. Corner it is to the Clipper crews. And . Jones’s Corner it has become'to the aviation-minded people of Honolulu.