SEAPLANES REACH BRAZIL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20766, 8 January 1931, Page 9

SEAPLANES REACH BRAZIL.

SQUADRON FROM ITALY.

ELEVEN CROSS ATLANTIC.

ONE FORCED INTO SEA. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. ROME, Jim. 0. Twelve seaplanes under tlio command of General Balbo, Italian Minister of Air, left Bolama, West, Africa, to-day for Port Natal, Brazil, unci all but one of the squadron eventually made the trip, thus completing a flight across the Atlantic. The first four of these made the flight from Bolama in 17 hours 15 minutes.

A message from Fernando do Noronha, a convict island 125 miles off Cape St. Roque, Brazil, stated that six machines passed the island at 2.35 in (he afternoon, and a few minutes later three more flew by. Nearly an hour after tho first group tho tenth and eleventh aeroplanes passed tho convict settlement. Tho authorities at Rio de Janeiro have been informed by a National Telegraph despatch that one of tho seaplanes was forced clown at sea owing to motor trouble. Tho mishap occurred off San Pedro, in tho San Paulo Islands. From St. Paul's Rocks it was taken in tow by an Italian cruiser.

Commandant (now Major) Franco, the Spanish airman who recently fled from Spain after the abortive rising, and Captain do Alda flew to South America in 1925. Captain Coste and Lieutenant Le Brix flew from Paris, via West Africa, to Port Natal in 19 hours 50 minutes on October 14, 1928. The best flight was that of tho Italians, Captain Ferrarin and Major Delprete, who on July 4, 1928, set out from Rome and flew to a point 10 miles north of Port Natal, 4448 miles. On August 7 while they were testing their machine it. crashed, and Major Delprete was injured, and died on August 16.