TASMAN FLIGHT

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 47, Issue 2665, 3 September 1937, Page 3

TASMAN FLIGHT

ROYAL AUSTRALIAN AIR FORCE MACHINES PROPOSED FOR USE. The possibility of a flight across the Tasman in less than six hours is being discussed by Royal Australian Air Force ( officers and men. This could be accomplished with the new R.A.A.F. planes, an advanced type known as the Bristol Bolingbrokes, which are expecttd at the end of the year. These aeroplanes will have a comfortable range of more than 2000 miles, and could cross the Tasman with a high safety margin. In an emergency the crossing could be made in a little more than four hours. The maximum speed of the machine is still an Air Ministry secret, but it is believed to exceed 330 miles an hour.

On at least two previous occasions representations have been made to the s Air Board for permission for the R.A.A.F. to make a Tasman flight. This has been withheld, on the ground that existing equipment was unsuitable, and would impose Unnecessary hazards for no satisfactory purpose, but it is hoped that permission will now be granted. If the flight is' authorised next year, it is probably that three machines will 'make the crossing together. The Minister for Defence (Sir Archdale Parkhill) said that a decision about the proposal would be made when the New Zealand Minister for Finance (Mr Nash) returned from abroad, when many other details of defence co-operation between the two dominions would be settled.