ATLANTIC SOLO FLIGHT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21221, 29 June 1932, Page 8

ATLANTIC SOLO FLIGHT.

WOMAN'S PERILOUS TRIP.

MISS EARHART'S FINE RECORD

GREAT COURAGE AND RESOURCE.

[from our own correspondent. ]

LONDON. May 27

Miss Amelia Earhart (Mrs. Putnam), the 34-years-old American airwoman, has established four new records by her flight across the Atlantic last week-end. They aro the longest straight-line flight ever made by a woman, the fastest crossing of the Atlantic (the previous record whs held for 13 years by the British airmen Sir John Alcock and Sir A. Whit ten Brown), the first Atlantic flight by a woman alone, and the only flight by any aviator who has made the crossing before. Miss Earhart landed in a field at Cub. more, four miles from Londonderry, at 1.45 p.m. on Saturday afternoon. After circling round several times she made a good landing. Then, in her full flying kit, she went 500 yards to the neaiest house —that of a farmer, Mr. James Galiacher, who gave her a cup of .tea, but she was so eager to telephone to her husband, Mr. G. P. Putnam, the American publisher and explorer, that she> refused further refreshment until she had been into Londonderry. A car was stopped in the road, and in this Miss Earhart was taken to Londonderry. On Sunday afternoon she was taken first to Blackpool and thence to to Hanworth Airpark in air taxis.

Three things at least went wrong on the flight, and any one of them might have led to disaster. Four hours out from Harbour Grace one section of the heavy exhaust manifold on the engine began to leak and to let the hot gases pass through. At the same time Miss Earhart met a particularly vile patch of bad weather and had to begin a period of blind flying, which continued, until after the dawn, five hours later. And very soon afterwards her altimeter failed her—" the first time," as she said, " '.n ten years of flying " —so th'at if she had not been a resourceful pilot she might have run the risk of flying into the sea while the night and the bad weather lasted.

Ice Forming on the Wings

" What I did," Miss Earhart said in answer to an inquiry as to how she could fly blind without an altimeter, " was to climb up into the clouds until the tachometer (engine revolutions counter) froze and then I knew I couldn't be near the sea." Those clouds, she said, were too thick to be climbed through. She tried to get above them to find clear weather and check her course by the stars. She believed she went up tols 12,000 ft., hut found ice was forming wings and the clouds were still heavy about her. So she ploughed her way through and put up with the lightning that at one time shot through them. Meanwhile, the leaking exhaust was getting more and more troublesome. Ihe intense heat at the leaky joint soon began to burn away the metal. " I looked over at it," said Miss Earhart, " and saw the flames coming out, and I wished afterwards I hadn't looked because it worried me all night." As the flight continued this trouble became worse. A piece of the manifold became detached and fell into the sea. Other parts began to work loose and serious vibration was set up, wh. ; ch could be felt throughout the structure of the machine.

The overheating of the manifold also affected the engine, and, in Miss Earhart's words, it " began to run rough." Her anxiety was not lessened by the knowledge that petrol was leaking into the cockpit from the petrol gauge. She confessed to some fear lest petrol fun.es should reach the exhaust manifold and be exploded by the flames that poured from the gap. The Landing in Ireland.

In the early morning Miss Earhart passed a ship—the only one she saw all the way across—and was saluted with a screaming siren. Still she went on, doubtful whether her navigation had been sound during her hours in the clouds, but hoping that if sh& had drifted off her course she might make Valencia ..or 'ihe Continent. At last she made Ireland, as she guessed. But again she could not. be sure, and the clouds lay on the hilltops, and without an altimeter she had no assurance that she could go high enough through the clouds to clear the hills. So she turned north and flew on until the hills came sweeping down to the rivermouth west of Londonderry. Miss Earhart, whose age is 34, has been flying since she was 19. In 1920 she set .up an altitude record for women fliers, attaining a height, of 14.000 ft. This was beaten recently when she reached 19,000 ft. in an autogyro—a record for this type of plane. She leapt to fame in June, 1928. when, with Mr. Wilmrr Stultz and Mr. Gordon, she crossed the Atlantic in the aeroplane Friendship, being the first wom?ri io do so. After a constant fight against bad weather and hours of " blind " flying the machine came down owing to shortage of fuel in Carmarthenshire. The flight occupied 21 hours 49 minutes.

Miss Earhart landed at Hanworth in heavy rain and took shelter under (he wing" of the air taxi until she could l>e conducted to the clubhouse under tlio shelter of an umbrella. Miss Earhart was hatless and wore only a leather jacket and breeches.

Subsequently Miss Earhart attended a luncheon given by the Institute. of Journalists in honour of the new United States Ambassador, Air. A. W. Mellon.