Woman's Atlantic Flight Achievement

Manawatu Times, Volume 61, Issue 236, 6 October 1936, Page 4

Woman's Atlantic Flight Achievement

COURAGE OF MRS B. MARKHAM

LONDON, Sept. 12.

The daring challenge of Mrs Beryl Markham to North Atlantic weather earned success for a flight which, in a single-engined aeroplane’ unequipped with radio, must remain an adventure even when like sun shines and the air is calm. Eighteen hundred mile 3 of open sea separate Ireland from Newfoundland along the route she followed. She flew through storm after storm. Head winds held her back, and forced up the fuel consumption. Sho was obliged to fly low instead of at the more economical heights several thousand feet ®P- ' Finally, after passing over a fogshrouded Newfoundland, Mrs Markham, with fuel at the point of exhaustion, made a heavy landing in a clearing at Baleine, on the north-east shore of Cape Breton Island. She had pulled off a 500 to one chance. In doing so she accomplisfiied the first westward solo crossing of the North Atlantic by a woman, and set a new world record for the longest feminine solo non-stop flight. In all, she flew about 2700 miles from Abingdon, England. ■ Tho flight was magnificent, but in 1936 it is not aviation. North Atlantic waters will not thus be conquered for the air mail and the passenger aeroplane. Yet the courage of the pilot, the skill with which she kept a perfect course across tho oceau in spite of appalling storms, and tho determination that kept her going on when still within easy range of Ireland and a safe return, compel admiration. Once again, too, a pilot has shown how the modern British light aeroplane and its engine will respond to tho most extreme demands.