AVIATION PROGRESS

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XIX, Issue 301, 5 December 1929, Page 7

AVIATION PROGRESS

GERMANY LEADS THE WORLD. MOST DIFFICULT FLIGHT OF SOUTHERN CROSS New Zealand’s representative In the crew of the Southern Cross when it made its taniouj two-way flight across the Tasman, and also its thir-toen-day passage from Australia to London, Mr T. H. McWilliams, xeturned to Wellington by the Manama from Sydney on Wednesday. Mr. McWilliams' plans for the future are somewhat indefinite, and he will oe “marking time" until he hears liom Squadron-Leader Kingsford Smith and Flight-Lieutenant Ulm as to the position in regard to the proposed Atlantic flight. Mr Mett iiliams explained yesterday that Kingsford Smith, who was now engaged m establishing the Australian National Airways services, planned an east to west flight of the Atlantic for April next, and with this end in view the Southern Cross was still at the Fokker works undergoing a thorough overhaul. While making it clear that the flight from Australia to England was a prolonged, continuous strain. Mr McWilliams stated that at no ti.no were the conditions as bad as those experienced on the Tasman flight. When the actual flying times were compared the flight of the Tasman had imposed a far greater physical strain on the crew of the Southern Cross. In the flight to Englanxl they had struck a lot oi rain over India, and struck plenty of humps over the Indian desert which were due to hot air rising from the desert, but even then conditions were not as bad os those they had experienced when they made the flight from Australia to New Zealand. “Everybody is very airminded in Great Britain and Europe particularly on the Continent,’’ said Mr McWilliams. “Air expresses are to lie ■seen arriving and departing from the Croydon aerodrome at all hours of .ho day and night. The control of air traffic is excellent. Germany, how ever, is miles ahead of any other country in the way of aircraft. I travelled from Berlin to Paris hv the Luft-Hansa air line, and the machin>s and the luxurious way they are fitted up is marvellous. I have never seen anything like it.”