DOUBLE RECORD

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 141, 16 May 1936, Page 9

DOUBLE RECORD

MRS MOLLISON SUCCEEDS. ROSE’S TIME BEATEN. BY BIG MARGIN. (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) Received May 16, 9.30 a.m. LONDON, May 15. airs J. A. Mollison has succeeded in establishing new records both for the flight from London to the Cape and from the Cape to London. Mrs Mollison, who had been forced down at Graz (Austria) owing to bad weather over tile Alps, left early, tofor Vienna. She arrived there at 7.15 (London time) and departed an hour iater, reaching Croydon at 1.38 p.m.

Mrs Mollison’s time was 112 hours, 17 minutes, which was 38 hours, 40 minutes faster than that of FlightLieutenant T. Rose, whose record for the flight to the Cape she beat by 11 hours 9 minutes. OFFICIAL CONGRATULATIONS. ENTHLSIASTIC SCENES. (British Official Wireless.) Received May 16, 11.13 a.m. RUGB V. May 15. When Mrs Mollison landed at Croydon she was enthusiastically cheered by large crowds which broke through the police cordons and surrounded the Percival View Gull aeroplane and mobbed the pilot herself who, when she landed, was greeted by her husband and relatives. The Deputy-Director of Civil Aviation handed Mrs Mollison a letter of congratulation from the Secretary for Air (Viscount Swinton), who wrote: “Your double flight is a splendid achievement:” The bad weather which forced Mrs Mollison to land yesterday evening at Gra.z, in Austria, and upend the night there, prevented her from reducing the time by about half a day more, as she hoped to do. Her time on the outward flight by the west coast route was 3 days 6 hours 25 minutes, and on this flight she lowered Flight-Lieutenant Rose’s record by 11 hours 11 minutes. Her Percival Gull cabin monoplane is powered by a Gipsy six, 200 horse power engine, and -its fitted with extra tankage giving a non-stop range ol more than 2000 miles. Gull aeroplanes have proved very popular, and considerable numbers have been exported overseas, including Australia, India, France, Sweden, Egypt,-Japan and China. MISS BATTEN’S MESSAGE. Received May 16, 12.35 p.m. LONDON, May 15. Miss Jean Ba.tten lias telegraphed Mrs Mollison as follows: “Heartiest congratulations in your wonderful effort. 1 knew.you could do it.”