TRANSATLANTIC FLIGHT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20596, 21 June 1930, Page 13

TRANSATLANTIC FLIGHT

BRITISH RIVAL FOR SMITH. AUSTRALIAN GIVEN MASCOT. LONDON, June 19. When the first east to west transatlantic flight was made in the aeroplane Bremen Colonel Fitzmaurice carried a £1 note as a mascot. After the flight Colonel Fitzmaurice, Baron von Huenefeld and Captain Kochl, the pilots of the Bremen, signed the note. Squadron-Leader Kingsford Smith now possesses this mascot. If his transatlantic llight is successful ho and the rest of the crew will sign it and then restore it to Mrs. Fitzmaurice. Tho Dublin correspondent of the Daily Mirror says a former British Air Force pilot, Squadron-Leader C. S. Wynne Eyton, is preparing for a solo flight from Ireland to America in a De Havilland Puss Moth. It will be fitted with tanks to enable it to carry sufficient petrol for 3000 miles without refuelling. The pilot is planning to take off before Squadron-Leader Ivingsford Smith. REFUELLING IN THE AIR. DIFFICULTY OF OPERATION. NEW YORK. Juno 19. Officials of tho Fokker Company who represent Squadron-Leader Kingsford Smith at New York commented to-day upon a statement cabled from Dublin to the effect that the airman hoped to arrange for tho refuelling of the Southern Cross in the air 600 miles north-east of the coast of Maine. They said it would not be impossible, but it lacked all the probabilities of success. It- was hard enough to make contacts between aeroplanes over an airport, to say nothing of finding a machine moving at a speed of 80 to 100 miles an hour over the open sea.