FLIGHT TO MESOPOTAMIA

Hawera Star, Volume L, 6 February 1931, Page 3

FLIGHT TO MESOPOTAMIA

ROYAL AIR FORCE PLANS

(British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, Feb. 4. Three Royal Air Force Rangoon fly-ing-boats, the first specimens of the military type of short Calcutta, will make a formation flight from Felixstowe to Basra, a distance of 35G0 miles. They will leave England within a week. The flight is in accordance with normal methods by which seaplanes proceed to their flight stations. On arrival they will meet three Southampton flying-boats of No. 203 Squadron, which will be flown home in formation . The Ran goons are fitted with three Bristol Jupiter engines each and the reliance placed on them is demonstrated by the choice of the route. They will fly overland 250 miles from Bordeaux to Marseilles and again in two stages from Alexandria to Basra, alighting at Baghdad and on the Tigris. The Mediterranean route via Malta and Crete is experimental with a view to testing the possibilities of an alternative to the land sections of the Indian air mail between London and Athens.