FLIGHT TO INDIA.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 11 May 1925, Page 2

FLIGHT TO INDIA.

SIR S. BRANCKER ON AIR COMFORT.

Air Vice-Marshal Sir Sefton Brancker (Director of Civil Aviation) and Mr. Allan J. Cobham, the pilot, were entertained at a banquet.-at the Savov Hotel by tlie Royal Aero Club and the Society of British Aircraft Constructors in commemoration of their flight to India and back. Sir Sefton Brancker said flying was not a stunt, but a business proposition. The credit for the flight belonged to the D.H.50, which had served them so marvellously, and the pilot and mechanic (Mr. A. B. Elliott). They were a happy family from the start to the finish, and he was proud to have been the sleeping partner in a very fine feat of airmanship. Wliat had impressed him more than anything was the extraordinary comfort of flying. It had obviously ruined him for any other form of transport. It was never too hot and never too cold. He believed you could fly continuously night and day without nearly as much unpleasantness as travelling in the ordinary railway train. With regard to the supposed tedium of flying across the desert, he believed the ordinary Gross-Channel pilot would regard it as’ a rest cure. _ FLYING REALLY SIMPLE. Flying in the East was a much easier proposition from the commercial point of view than it was ftere, becafise they could fly from London to Rangoon without any necessity to go higher than about 6000 feet, and he believed they could fly in any visi--bility. , . Mr. Alan .Cobham said flying was really very simple. Their aim had been to come- back as they started, and they had succeeded in it. Any flight could be made an ordinary affair. There was really nothing wonderful about the flight to India and back, and he was convinced that in ten, or even five years’ time it would he an everyday occurrence. The need was to teach the man in the street something about flying. He believed the flight was encouraging because it- proved the simplicity of flying, and it would help people to- look on aviation as a practical proposition. Mr. A. A. Elliott said very little credit was due either to Mr. Cobham or himself for the flight. It was due rather to the machine and the engine. (Laughter.)