FLYING-BOAT’S TRIP

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20471, 4 February 1941, Page 5

FLYING-BOAT’S TRIP

AMERICA TO AUSTRALIA THE FIRST OF EIGHTEEN The first of 18 Consolidated PBY 5 flying-boats, ordered some time ago from America by the Australian Government, reached Noumea toward the end of last week on a delivery flight, to Sydney. The machine was to have been flown from Noumea to Sydney on Sunday. The aircraft, which was constructed at San Diego, was flown to Honolulu by an American crew and there taken over by a crew of Australians under Captain P. G. Taylor, former associate of Sir Charles Kingsford Smith. The machine has been flown south by the Pan American route, using the company’s bases and facilities at Canton Island and Noumea. It was inspected with interest by passengers on the California Clipper, which arrived ai Auckland from Noumea on Sunday. Other machines in the order probably will be delivered by the same route at intervals of about a month. It was stated in Australia recently that the aircraft will be used to strengthen the reconnaisance patrol of the Australian coast and the Tasman Sea. They have a still-air range of 4000 miles and will be capable of reconnaisance flights to Suva and return, and non-stop flights from Darwin to Singapore.