AVIATION IN 1931

Hokitika Guardian, 7 January 1932, Page 6

AVIATION IN 1931

REiVIEW OF THE YEAR-

NOTABLE flights.

Til aviation, 1931 has been a year of great achievement. During that twelve months of effort, man has flown at more than 400 miles an hour for the first- time, he has circled the world in a little over 8 days, and the Pacific Ocean has been crossed from Japan to America without a stop. These are hut a few of the great performances tliat the year has adrjed to the annals of aviation- Recordjjjs&Fe been wrecked, and successive aviators have beaten each other’s time along the London-Cape Town and London-Aus-tralia routes.

Great Britain, having proved herself so immensely superior to all other nations in the realm of speed, has won the Schneider Trophy outright merely by using an improved model of the machine which vanquished the Italians two years previously; and having achieved that, put the world speed record up to the 407 m.p.h. mark. Thus Britain stands supreme in air speed, thanks to Lady Houston, who gave £IOO,OOO in order that the nation could defend the trophy aganist the challenge of rival nations at a- time when the State’s finances were unable /to spare the expenditure. Trans-Atlantic- flights have proved a popluar feature of the year’s aviation. General Italo Balbo opened the year with his great formation flight to Rio, in conception, the greatest formation flight since the Far East cruise of the Royal Air Force in 1927, but only ten of the fourteen machines with which he left Italy were able to cross the ocean in formation, and the effort cost five lives. Italy was more than satisned, and is now planning a round-the-world flight with two dozen machines. ACROSS THE ALTANTIC. Another Atlantic flight, admittedly ■a leisurely one, which claimed the attention of the flying world was that of the giant flying boat, the Dornier Do.X, which began at .Switzerland in November, UoO, and ended at Rio de Janjero in June. Later, the craft flew to New York, and it is still there. Negotiations for the purchase of the huge vessel by Pan-American Airways, which would then use it to operate a service, have been in progress, but should the craft not be sold, it will probably make a return flight across the Atlantic, thus being the first heavier-than-air machine to fly the ocean in both directions.

Long jumps, frorii America to Europe, were a feature of the summer months of the Northern Hemisphere. Hoiaris and Hillig hopped from Newfoundland to Germany on. their way to Denmark in June, and in July. Magyar and Elides reached Hungary from the same starting place. A fortnight later, Boardman and Tolando, two Americans, flew from New York to Constantinople, a non-stop flight of 5014 miles which beat the world distance record, 4912 miles, established by Costes and Bellonte, in a flight from Paris to Moulart, China. Prance immediately made three efforts to regain this record, but all failed, and in their second effort Le Brjx and Mesmin were killed, Doret escaping. The flights of the year, I think, might be placed in the following order.: 1. Post and Catty: Round the world. 2. Hinkler: Soutli Ametfca-Africa. 3. Herndon and Panghorn: JapanAmerica. 4. Boardman and Polando: New YorkIstnnbul. 5. Chichester: New Zealand-Japan.

The effort of the American, Wiley Post, and his Australian navigator, Harold Catty, of flying around the earth in 8 days 15 hours 51 minutes was pre-eminent. It was- a great otdeal for pi lot and navigator, engine and machine, and all survived it. HINKLER’S LONG DARING. Undertaken in vile conditions, in a small Piiiss Moth, ithe flight of Hinkler from Natal, Brazil, to Bathurst, Africa, more than 2000 miles, was « wonderful achievement. Superb navigation during the whole of the 22hour flight across the ocean saved Hinkler’s life, for be had a very small safety margin, and the amazing tiling is that the first flight from America across the South Atlantic should he accomplished by « lone Britisher in a light aeroplane. Herndon and Panghorn’s Pacific flight was twice as long an ocean flight as Hinkler’s, hut ! placed it below his because of the superior equipment, the extra pilot, and the islands which made navigation less difficult.

CHICHESTER’S MISFORTUNES. Chichester’s flight is unlike the others in the list. It was not made in gigantic Imps, hut in flights of a lew h mill red miles. Relore he Guild undertake it, Chichester had to learn to fly a seaplane, and'he spent months i,', mastering navigation and wireless. His crossing of the Tasman Sea, from Parengarenga to Norfolk' Island, from Norfolk Island to Lord Howe Island, and from there to Jervis Ray, ueie but. hazardous adventures, the targets to which he was navigating being hut specks in the ocean. For the first and second Imps he has already been honoured with the first award of the .Johnston Memorial Trophy for the best feat of navigation by a British airman living in a civilian capacity During the whole of tile flight, Chiclies tor had nearly every mishap conceit' able from a jammed hand to a coin piote crash; and the fact that he rcach-

ed Japan is in itself a tribute to bif resourcefulness'' and perseverance. Other flights worthy of mention during the year were those of Miss Amy Johnson and Mr C. S. Humphreys, from London to Tokio and back; the Lindberghs, from America to Asia; Ahrenberg, from Norway to the ice cap, to search lor Cortaiild, and back, and Guy Menzies’s solo flight across the Tasman. The London-Cape Town record was broken and brought to 6| days by the late Lieutenant-Commander Glen Kidston, and broken again, by Mr Gordon Store and Miss Peggy Snlnman by more than a day; Australia has also beefn brought nearer to London than formerly by the paring down of the record time. Kingst'ord Smith lost both his records to Mr C. W. A. Scott, who in his turn forfeited his record for the flight to England to Air J. A. Alollison, who reached England in 8 days 21 Hours 15 minutes, and the England-AiistraJin record to Mr C'. A. Butler, who accomplished the journey in 9 days 2 hours 29 minutes, in a Compel' Swift-. Outstanding achievements in the realm of gliding were the crossings of the English Channel by Beardmore and by Robert Kronfield f , who made the two-wav flight.