CENTENARY ’PLANE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 210, 4 August 1934, Page 7

CENTENARY ’PLANE.

SIR C. KINGSFORD SMITH’S TRIAL

SYDNEY, Aug. 3

Having successfully undertaken a special load and speed test with his ’plane Lady Southern Cross, to-day, Sir Charles Kingsford Smith then flew the machine for a dash at speed, the fastest flight ever made in Australia. Sir Charles refuses to divulge the flying speed, but says he is satisfied that he has an excellent chance of being first past the post in the Centenary race.

IRISH AVIATOR. PROGRAMME AHEAD. NEW YORK, Aug. 3. Colonel Fitzmaurice, the Irish ■aviator, on arriving with FlightSergeant Eric Bonner, his co-pilot in the Melbourne flight, declared that before the race he- would attempt to break the present non-stop record of 13 hours 5 minutes from Los Angeles to New York held by Captain Eddie Richenbacber. Colonel Fitzmaurice will confer with Washington authorities as to the possibility of establishing a regular New York-England mailplane service within a year. BRITISH AIR MAILS. NEW INLAND SERVICE. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, Aug. 3. Britain’s new inland air mail service will be opened on August 20, when ’planes will carry mails to Birmingham and Belfast. Its inauguration coincides with the 150th anniversary of the introduction of the mail coach. The air mail will be extended to other centres in te near future.