LONG FLIGHTS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 115, 12 April 1933, Page 7

LONG FLIGHTS

TRANS-PACIFIC VENTURE.

AN AUSTRALIAN PARTY

SYDNEY TO SAN FRANCISCO,

(United Press Association—By Electric

Telegraph.—Copyright.) Received April 12, 10.0 a.m. SYDNEY, April 12.

Plans are in preparation for a tranPacific flight within the next three or four months. The party is stated to be under the leadership of Mr Charles Ulm, and will include Mr G. Allen, Captain P. G. Taylor and a wireless operator, yet to be selected. The ’plane will be the Southern Moon, which is similar to the Southern Cross. The party will fly from Sydney to San Francisco with stops at Fi]i and Hawaii, and possibly another point. Captain Taylor left on Saturday bv the Monterey, and it is understood that he intends to examine possible landing places. SURVEY OF ROUTE. FACILITIES BY GOVERNMENTS. (British Official Wireless.) Received April 12 8.10 a.m. RUGBY, April 11. Sir John Simon stated in the House of Commons that the Portuguese Government had agreed to permit all facilities for a preliminary survey of the London to Australia air route, and the Netherlands Government had requested their East Indies Government to grant similar facilities. MISS BATTEN’S PROGRESS. ATHENS, April 10. Miss Jean Batten, the New Zealand airwoman, who is flying from Australia to New Zealand, left for Aleppo at 3.40 o’clock in the morning. DEPARTURE FOR BAGDAD. Received April 12 11.10 a.m. ALEPPO, April 11. Miss Batten arrived here at 12.30 and left for Bagdad at 4.30 o’clock in the afternoon. PREPARATIONS FOR ATTEMPT. HELP FROM FRANCE. Received April 12, 8.45 a.m. LONDON, April 11. Miss Batten’s fiancee, Mr Victor Doree, said: “I met Jean at the London Aero Club in 1932. She has been scraping for nearly two years to finance the flight and deprived herself of frocks and used cheap powder. She dispensed with luxuries. We jointly own the machine, which we purchased through the Prince’s pilot, Mr Fielden. We are sharing the cost of the flight, which is about £900.” JOURNEY BY ITALIAN. LONDON, April 10.. In his flight to Australia, after covering 1200 miles from Bari to Aleppo in nine hours, Signor Robiano, the Italian airman, left last night for Jask after remaining two hours at Aleppo. LONDON TO THE CAPE. CAPTAIN LANCASTER STARTS. LONDON, April 11. Captain W. Lancaster left London at 5.35 o’clock this morning for the Cape. He will attempt to beat Mrs Amy Mollison’s record. GERMAN AIRWOMAN’S FLIGHT. CAIRO, April 11. Fraulein Elli Beiuhorn, who is flying from Berlin to the Cape in easy stages, has departed for the Sudan. FRENCH SEAPLANE FATALITY. FIVE OF CREW DROWNED.

MARSEILLES, April 11. All five of the crew of a military seaplane were drowned in the darkness when, on returning from night manoeuvres, the ’plane crashed and trapped the occupants. A TASMAN SERVICE. POSSIBILITIES FOR TRANSPORT. AUCKLAND, April 11. The conviction that an aerial transport service across the Tasman Sea is well within the bounds of possibility, and at no very remote date, was expressed by both Captain P. G. Taylor and Mr H. M. Mackay, two members of the crew who flew from tho Ninetymile Beach to Sydney in the Southern Cross last Sunday week when they arrived in Auckland by the Monterey this morning. “For a regular service from New Zealand to Australia a suitable type of machine must be developed,” said Captain Taylor. “By that I mean a typo which eliminates the possibility of having to make a forced descent at sea. This will be achieved with a, multiple-engined plane the units of which are accessible to engineers during the flight. This will enable repairs to be effected in the case of minor mishaps such as in tho past have made forced landings necessary.” “Our general opinion is that within the next four or five years some definite move will be made to inaugurate a service,” said Mr Mackay. Provided that Government assistance was forthcoming from both sides of the Tasman, Sir Charles Kingsford Smith was prepared to associate himself with the project. A subsidy was essential for such an air service in its initial stages until such time as public confidence was established.