TRANSATLANTIC FLIGHT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20303, 10 July 1929, Page 11

TRANSATLANTIC FLIGHT

START IN A MONOPLANE

AMERICANS' SECOND ATTEMPT

Australian I'ress Association—United Service NEW YORK, July 8. Another attempt to fly across the Atlantic was commenced to-day.

]n a Bellanca-Wright single motored monoplane, the Pathfinder, Pilot Roger Q. Williams (pilot) and Lewis A. Yancey (navigator) took off for liome from Old Orchard, Maine, at 8.49 a.m.

The fliers expected to complete the journey of 4700 miles in from 4o to 50 hours.

Messrs. Williams and Yancey failed in a previous attempt to fly across the Atlantic. On June 13, 11 minutes after the three French airmen Messrs. Jean Assolant, I!eno Lefevre and Armenia Lotti, jun., had left Old Orchard in the Yellow Bird (eventually reaching Spain), the two Americans tried to take off in the aeroplane Green Flash. They sped down the crescent-shaped bench in the machine, but had travelled only one-third of a mile when the aeroplane, which weighed 650011)., tore into the soft sands, and was almost overturned.

The airmen were not injured, but both wheels of the aeroplane were torn off, the propeller was smashed, one wing was broken, the fabric torn, and the engine damaged.