TO INDIA NON-STOP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20241, 29 April 1929, Page 11

TO INDIA NON-STOP.

AIRMEN LAND AT KARACHI. FAILURE TO BEAT RECORD. British Wireless. RUGBY, April CO. Tho Air Ministry states that SquadronLeader Jones-Williams and Flight-Lieu-tenant N. 11. Jenkins landed at Karachi, on' their attempt to make a non-stop longdistance flight from Cranwell. They had been in the air for 50h 38m, and covered 4130 miles, which is 500 miles less than the Italian record.

Tho airmen apparently flew past Karachi, but returned owing to the approach of darkness, and it is presumed, a shortage of petrol. The first non-stop flight to India has thus been successfully accomplished and the previous British long-distance record lias been beaten. This was the flight of Flight-Lieutenant Carr in 1927, in which he covered 3419 miles non-stop, before coming down in tho Persian Gulf.

The route distance from Cranwell to Karachi is 4130 miles. The time taken includes a period of nearly two hours occupied in flying 011 past Karachi. No report has yet been received from the pilots, but a bead wind appears to have been encountered after they left Bagdad, for the first stage of 2600 miles was covered in 27 hours, while the stage of 1530 miles, from Bagdad to Karachi, took 22 hours.

On July 4-5, 1928, Captain Terrain and Major Delprete made the longest nonstop journey in an aeroplane yet accomplished. They flew from Rome to Natal, Brazil, 4632.86 miles, in 51 hours. The previous record was hold by Mr, Clarence Chamberlin, who, in June, 1927, piloted Mr. Charles Lcvine 011 a flight from New York to Eisleben, Germany, a distance of about 3923 miles, in 423 hours. In May, 1927, Colonel Charles Lindbergh flew from New York to Paris, about 3639 miles, without a stop, in 33i hours. Other line non-stop flights were those of Commander R. Byrd in Juno, 1927, from New York to Normandy, France, about 3500 miles, and of the Frenchmen, Costes and Rignot, from Paris to Persia, about 3415 miles. The Pacific (light of Kingston! Smith and his party included one hop of about 3180 miles, from Hawaii to Suva.