AUSTRALIAN VENTURE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19736, 8 September 1927, Page 11

AUSTRALIAN VENTURE.

FLIGHT FROM ENGLAND. TO START THIS MONTH. LONDON. Aug. 30. Captain W. N. Lancaster, an ex-Aus-tralian soldier who is now in the Royal Air Force, has completed plans for a flight to Australia to commence about September 25. He will be accompanied by the wife of Mr. Keith Miller, of Melbourne. He proposes to use an Avro Avian Cirrus Mark 2 engine, and will probably be accompanied in a second machine by Flying-Officer Galpin and Captain McEvoy, both of the Royal Air Force. The Australian High Commissioner, Sir Granville Ryrie, is strongly supporting the adventurers, and has given them letters of recommendation, stating that he is "Quite assured of their bona fides and capability to carry out the project successfully." The proposed route is almost identical with that followed by Denis Rook, who is at present in hospital at Calcutta, as a result of an accident while engaged on a lone flight to the Commonwealth. Captain Lancaster is a well-known athlete. He was captain and champion of the Royal Air Force boxing team in 1925, and was a former Rugby player. He is the hero of spectacular parachute turns, and is known as "Broncho" Lancaster, because he rode one of Tex Austin's bronchos at the rodeo at Wembley. Several Australians resident in London, including Sir Sydney Kidman, the Australian cattle king, are assisting Captain Lancaster financially.