AVIATION.

Hokitika Guardian, 2 September 1927, Page 2

AVIATION.

(Australian Press Association & Sun. START OF ELY. LONDON. Aug. 31. The scene at the commencement of the Atlantic flight was most dramatic, Hamilton .and MTnckin did not sleep a wink all night. With dawn there was a, strong easterly wind. The airmen gathering in a ghostly mist shook their heads and gave a verdict that it was impossible to take off under such conditions,- but Hamilton was determined and jumped into a waiting car and made a tour of inspection to the eastward. A section of aerodrome watchers on Salisbury Plain saw great headlights sweeping the ground. He returned and consulted Minchin and decided to take off in another direction. Thereupon the monoplane was manhandled across the country by forty men. While this was occurring Princess Lowenstein arrived in a large limousine accompanied by the Archbishop of Cardiff and three priests. The Princess left- her London homo shortly after midnight, called at Devige’s and picked up the Archbishop. When the preparations were complete, she stood in the shelter of a wing in the lialflight and the Archbishop blessed the airplane, whereupon the Princess kneeled and kissed the Episcopal ring. The Prelate raised his hand and gave a blessing, saying: “I will not forget to pray for you.” Then he placed a hand on the airmen’s shoulders shaking each affectionately. The Princess stepped to her seat in a wicker cane chair among the luggage. The airplane ran a. thouand yards for several anxious moments narrowly missing an ambulance and then a- line of fir trees.

.MISSING AEROPLANE. LONDON. Aug. 31. The “Times” Inusbruk correspondent says alpine guides seeking a Jugo-Slav military plane which disappeared while flying in Albcry mountains in a blizzard on August 2.th, found the demolished plane on the glacier. Apparently it hit the iace oi the mountain. The pilot, trost hitten, and suffering from compound tractures of the legs, was alive, while Ins companion was frozen to death while seeking help.

SOVIET AIR FORCE. LONDON, Aug. 31. The Daily Mail’s aviation reporter says: The’Soviet is plotting a titanic future struggle, in which a high speed conflict will be fought and won mainly in tho air. The reporter continues: Aiming at amilitary fleet of three thousand planes hacked by numbers of convertible commercial planes which are being built in closely guarded factories, the Soviet is establishing eight- military air liases, and is reopening and building new poison gas factories and manufacturing more varieties and a greater volume of poison gas than any other country. There have been many delays in the construction of the Soviet planes, but the French estimate that the Soviet possesses more than one thousand planes, apart from reserves for aviation and otherwise. The Association of Friends of the Red Air Fleet, which consists of three million members, has raised funds to supply the Red Army with two hundred machines. The workers are giving additional sums, after propaganda, declaring that Russia’s future lies in the air, .and that flying will enable her io precipitate a universal revolution. and that if used relentlessly, flying will prove, invincible.

A ROUGH PASSAGE. NEW YORK, Aug. 31. At midnight no word had been received from tlie Princess Lowenstein’s plane Saint Raphael, which is crossing the. Atlantic to Ottawa from Wales. It is estimated the Saint Raphael should now be four hundred miles east of Newfoundland. The weather reports indicate that the plane is now within an area of cloudy skies and showers and fog, and that she will Ik> battling with adverse winds, that will slow up her progress. “PRTDE OF DETROIT.” CONSTANTINOPLE, Aug. 31. Brock and Selilee’s ijourney from Belgrade took G hours. They were delayed for 43 minutes by a head wind. When they had refilled here, they wanted to proceed, but they wore obliged to spend a night in Constantinople to comply with the formajitios of the permission to fly over Turkish territory. This makes them a day behind the prearranged itinerary.