PACIFIC FLIGHT.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 30 December 1924, Page 7

PACIFIC FLIGHT.

ATTEMPT NEXT YEAR. V A GREAT SEAPLANE, v CONTRACT SIGNED. Accor cling to advices' received from Honolulu ; by/. Mi- David G. Stead, of Sydney, everything. is shaping /well for the proposed trans-Pacific flights fey aeroplane; .from the United States of America to the Orient and Australia. There is now. little doubt, he says, , that the flight from Sari Francisco- to Sydney will take place during the next year; It is expected to synchronise with the Coming; of the/ United’ States fleet .to these waters. • .■:/;/;■. /V-. , , The Bureau of Naval Aeronautics has recently, signed . a contract for„ the construction of a large boat seaplane! which, it is believed,. is intended for the trans-Pacific flights. The vessel is beiug built in Seattle. Jlt has a capacity of five passengers and a ton of freight,' besides fuel and oil. . The plane ivillbe .equipped with twin 800 h.p; I2riyliridef engines, said to be the most powerful aeroplane motor unit ever .built in the United States, with a contract speed of over 100 miles per hour. Naval designers estimate that each engine will be powerful enough to drive the plane should that be necessary. This seaplane is expeeted to fly at least 3000 miles in one rion-stop flight, with what- General Mitchell terms “the maximum amount of security for the; personnel;” and without the .assistance 6f surface vessels. ; Mr Stead says that the ceiitraL committee iri Honolulu., the presiderit of which is the Governor of "Hawaii, has communicated with the chiefs/ qf 'the air. service of the United. States army and navy atWashington, with . moet satisfactory results, and the Director of the Pan-Pacific Union (Mr A. H. Ford) has gone to Washington to arrange with the authorities for financing the trip.-. . ; ■’ ' As originally outline!], the course of the flight lies along a route runniiig from San Francisco, via Honolulu, Palmyra . Island, Phoenix Group, Samoa, Fiji, Auckland to Sydney. It is expected that this course will be followed, but should the United States Navy undertake the flight it is possible that a short cut to Australia may be made from Fiji, via New Caledonia. In that event Brisbane would lie the point of arrival in Australia. The longer route is favoured by the commercial people, because it follows the lines of oonnnereiyi air development in the Southern Pacific, and closely links Aue.tralia and New Zealand.