First Trans-Tasman Flying boat

Manawatu Times, Volume 64, Issue 193, 17 August 1939, Page 7

First Trans-Tasman Flying boat

Aotearoa Ready For Historic Flight EVERYTHING SHIPSHAPE IN PINAL TRIALS United Press Association.—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright. , LONDON. Aug. 15. Tlic ground staff of the Imperial Airways depot at Southampton worked 2-1 hours without a break preparing the Tasman flying-boat Aotearoa for her take-off at dawn ♦ to-morrow on her historic delivery flight to Auckland. The final trial flight to-day proved that everything was shipshape. Mechanics were employed well into the night on a last-minute check. The normal Empire air routes will be followed. The Aotearoa’s crew will be as follows: Captain John Burgess, of Dunedin, ■who made the round flight in the Centaurus. First Officer, Mr. W. J. Craig, of Wanganui, who has had a meteoric rise after joining Imperial Airways in 1937, having gone to England on a short-service commission to the Royal Air Force. Radio Officer, Mr. G. W. Gussans, of Belfast. Flight Steward, Mr. R. A. Phillips, of Melbourne. The Aotearoa is also carrying the engineers, Messrs. R. S. Peek and E. R. Macnamara, both of New Zealand; S. J. Bradshaw, of London, and B. Knee, of Middlesex, and the technician, Mr. J. Brown, of London. All will remain in New Zealand, Captain Burgess as chief trans-Tasman pilot. The Aotearoa is on the slips to-night. Nearby is the famous trans-Atlantic seaplane Mercury, and also her sisterships Caribou and Centaurus, which arrived this morning from Basra after deputising in the mail service for the damaged flying-boat Australia. AOTEAROA TAKES OFF Received Midnight LONDON, Aug. 16. The Aotearoa took off for Auckland at 4.43 B.S.T.