ROUND PACIFIC FLIGHT

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 9 January 1925, Page 6

ROUND PACIFIC FLIGHT

ASSUMING DEFINITE SHAPE.

ROUTE TAKES IN NEW'

ZEALAND

The next big aerial event of worldwide interest promises to be round-the-Paeific flight, taking in the east coast of Australia and New Zealand. The project is assuming definite shape in America. Plans have been drawn up for the flight, and routes are being selected, according to the Honolulu Star Bulletin.

Correspondence with Washington and every Pacific capital is under way. The American army and navy are chiefly interested in the flight from San Francisco to Honolulu, and thence by several intervening islands to Australia, hut “the Pan-Pacific workers hope to persuade the Australians to take up and continue the flight from Sydney to Tokyo, and the Japanese from their capital to Vancouver, asking Canada to send relay flyers from Vancouver to San Francisco, or better still, to Los Angeles and' San Diego.” At a recent luncheon of the .PanPacific Club it was discovered that an energetic young aviator in the army.air service, Lieut. A. F. Hcgcnberger, was responsible for the fjrst suggestion of the round-the-Paciflc flight, and had made application to be in charge of one of the machines. “For more than ,a year 'the young lieutenant has quietly whispered his suggestions to the Pan-Pacific Club and the Hawaiian branch of the National Aeronautic Association. When the delegates were being selected in Australia to scud to the first Pan-Pacific Food Conservation Conference last July and August, one of the delegates, Mr. David Stead, wrote to the Pan-Pacific .Union, asking that it arrange a flight | for him over the Hawaiian Islands, that he might study the reefs and shallows where: fish abound. “This was done, and the young lieutenant enlisted the Australian - in the movement for a ronnd-the-Pacific flight. Stead became an enthusiast; he spoke before the Honolulu branch of the National Aeronautic Association, describing his flight over Kileaua. volcano, and at a luncheon meeting of the PanPacific Club, high officials of the army and navy were present to outline the possibilities of a round-the-Paciflc air voyage. Maps were drawn, 'and later altered, and this process is still going on as new Information from faroff tentative landing spots arrives. Mr. Stead promised the hearty co-operation of his Government, and returned to Australia to successfully inspire the Press and people with the share they should take up in promoting H round-the-Paciflc air flight.”