CAIRO TO CAPETOWN

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVII, Issue 123, 22 April 1927, Page 8

CAIRO TO CAPETOWN

SECOND EDITION

SUCCESSFUL FLIGHT.

MACHINES BEHAVE SPLENDIDLY

Received April 22, 11.28 a.m RUGBY, April' 21. Four Fairey 3F aeroplanes, under the command of Commodore Samson, have arrived at Capetown, having oomploted the flight from Cairo without a hitch. The machines are of an entirely new type not yet generally introduced in the Air Force and are fitted with Na-_ pier Lion engines. Commodore Samson states that they behaved splendidly every inch of the way. The only mishap was a punctured tyre at Abercorn. The machines flew over the Hex river and mountains at a height of 11,000 feet. At Kisumu, in Kenya, they were joined by four do Haviland machines of uie South African Air Force with which they carried out at Nairobi combined exercises in co-operation with the ground troops, namely, the Third King’s African Rifles.

Considerable importance is attached to these oombined exercises, which form part of the Air Ministry’s policy of utilising the mobility of the air army to maintain the strategic points of Empire communications and reduce to the minimum the cost of Empire defence.—British official wireless.