AIR RACE TO AUSTRALIA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17328, 27 November 1919, Page 7

AIR RACE TO AUSTRALIA.

BOSS SMITH AT DELHI. POULET ALMOST OVERTAKEN. 1600 MILES IN 25 HOURS. By Telecraph— Press Association— Copyright. (Received 11.30 p.m.) A. and N.Z. DELHI, Nov. 25. Captain Ross Smith, the pilot of the Vickers-Vimy machine in the flight to Australia competition, cables that he left Karachi to-day at 7.40 a.m., and arrived at Delhi at 4.30 p.m. The journey was uneventful, the day being good with a slight head wind. During the last three days Captain Ross Smith has flown for an aggregate of 25 hours, covering IGOO miles. Allahabad is his next stop, and possibly will be made tomorrow. Captain Ross Smith regards the most dangerous portion of the whole route to Australia as between Rangoon and Singapore. For 1000 miles the route is over jungle, in which a forced landing is more dangerous than at sea. POULET AT ALLAHABAD. CALCUTTA NEXT STOP. (Received 11.30 p.m.) Router. ALLAHABAD, Nov. 26. ! | Etienne Poulet. arrived here at two | o'clock yesterday, and he hopes to , leave for Calcutta at 7 o'clock to- ; day. He will fix floats on his machine , at Calcutta for the onward flight, which will be controlled solely by weather conditions. There are now four aeroplanes in flight to Australia. Etienne Poulet. a French j | aviator, was the first to start. He left | 1 Paris on October 14 and has reached i India, via Rome, Brindisi, Salonika. Constantinople, Asia Minor, Bagdad, and the , Persian Gulf. He is not eligible for the j prize of £10,000 offered by the Common- ; ; wealth Government for the first flight to.' j Australia, as the competition is restricted to Australian airmen. Poulet states th&t his is purely a sporting venture. He is using a Caudron G4 machine fitted for a nonstop flight of 13 or 14 hours. It has two 80 horse power engines. He j has with him only a mechanic. j ] Captain G. C. Matthews, who is pilot- i ( ing a Sopwith machine, was the first I Australian competitor to leave England, j | He started from Hounslow on October 21, i accompanied by Sergeant Kay, as me- j ! chanic, and arrived at Cologne on October J j 22. Since then he has been weather i ! bound on the Rhine, and according to I the latest cabled report, he is at Dagsburg, I I near Strasbourg, in Alsace. , j I Captain Ross Smith, piloting a Yickers- I • V imy machine and accompanied by his brother, Lieutenant Keith Smith, and . two mechanics, Sergeants J. M. Bennett i and W. H. Shiers, lett London on Novemj ber 12. Travelling by way of Rome, Crete, ' I Cairo, Damascus, Bagdad and the Persian : Gulf, he has reached JJeliii within thirteen days of his start. This leaves him seventeen days in which to reach Australia and quality fur the Commonwealth Govern- | ment's prize. The terms of the competition stipulate that the flight must be completed within 720 consecutive hours. ; Captain Ross Smith has already travelled I approximately 5600 miles, and has about I I 5300 miles further to go before he reaches I I the Australian coast. The voyage before him is the most arduous part of the undertaking for the route from Calcutta to Palj merston, via Burma, the Straits Settle- | ments and th« Dutch East Indies, is almost I destitute of aerodromes. [ I The last machine to start on the flight , was the Blackburn Kangaroo, manned bv | | Captain Wilkins, Lieutenant V. Rendle, ' ; Lieutenant O. R. Williams and Lieutenant ! G. H. Potts, which left London on So- '' vember 21. Flying into a heavy snow- I storm it was obliged to descend 62 miles east of Paris the same dav » {