FAMOUS AIRMEN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20882, 26 May 1931, Page 6

FAMOUS AIRMEN.

COLLECTION OF AUTOGRAPHS. UNIQUE CIGARETTE CASE. T A silver cigarette cnse, on which are fagraved the autographs of famous aviators who have made memorable flights to or from Australia, is the treasured possssion /of Mr. W. H. E. Judd, of the IVacuum Oil Company Proprietary, Ltd., Melbourne. The case was procured by Mr. Judd in Wellington and has a back Of New Zealand greenstone. As the 25 signatures it contains now leave no room for additional autographs, a silver leaf has been added to the case.

Mr. Judd commenced collecting these ®utograpl)s in 1919, when Sir Keith Smitl) and Sir Ross Smith, the first airmen to fly from England to Australia, opened the list with their signatures. No doubt they would have been surprised could they have known the number of aviators who would add their names to l»he cigajette case in the 12 years that followed. The Smith brothers, whose names appear first, landed at Darwin on December 10, 1919, after a flight of 28 days. Their average speed was 76 miles an hour. Both aviators received a knighthood for this achievement. Sir Ross Smith, with Lieutenant Bennett, was killed in an air crash in London on April 33. 1922.

The next autographs obtained were those of Lieutenant R. Paver anrl the late Lieutenant J. C. Mcintosh, who flew from England to Australia early in 1920. Sir Alan Coham, another pioneer aviator whose autograph appears on the case, landed at Darwin on August 6, 1920. He was the first aviator to make the flight both ways. His average speed was 82 miles an hour, six miles an hour faster than that, of the Smith brothers. (Altogether, he flew 26.000 miles and his flying time was a little over 320 hours. 'At that time it was the longest flight in the world. Another aviator to sign his name on the case was Marchess de Pinedo, of the [Royal Italian Air Staff, who. in a Savoia seaplane, left Rome on April 21, 1925, and arrived at Broorne on May 31. He returned via Japan, reaching Rome on November 6.

Air-Commodore Kingsford Smith, whose signature' is beside those of Parer and Sir Keith Smith and Sir Ross Smith, is probably the greatest of these pilot pioneers. For the merit of his achievements he stands alone. The cigarette case also has the signatures of Amy Johnson, S. Goble, Oscar Garden, W. Lancaster, C. P. Ulm, A. L. Long, A. W. Ward, V. J. Mclntyre, H. N. Wrigley, A. H. Cobby and Colonel H. C. Brinsmead, now Controller of Civil [Aviation in Australia