GREAT AIR RACE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21458, 4 April 1933, Page 11

GREAT AIR RACE

LONDON TO MELBOURNE KEEN INTEREST ANTICIPATED [FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT] SYDNEY, March 30 Great interest has been aroused throughout Australia in the announcement from Melbourne that Sir Macpherson Kobertson had given to. the Lord Mayor a cheque for £IO,OOO as The prize for the winner of an air race from London to Melbourne in October, 1934. The idea of the race is to popularise the Melbourne centenary celebrations, for which elaborate arrangements are being made. Next year will be a gala year in Melbourne, and during the time set apart for the actual celebrations there will be many attractions, the whole plan being on a huge scale. The Lord Mayor, in announcing the gift, said the race would be the greatest in the history of aviation. He was confident that makers of aircraft throughout the world would be anxious to be represented by high-class pilots. All the competitors would start from London at the samo time. They would have to follow a prescribed route, and the first pilot to reach Melbourne \vould be presented with the cheque. The race would not be hedged in with many conditions. Any machine from any nation would be entitled to compete. There would be no restriction on the size of tho crew and none on the number or size of the engines. It was thought'that aeroplane makers would at. once begin to design special machines for tho race. Sir Charles Kingsford Smith said it was unlikely that ho would be a starter in the race. He said he was not altogether in favour of long-distance xaces, especially where big prize-money was the lure, because it encouraged a number of people to take unnecessary risks. Anyhow, such a flight would have to be under the strictest control. Competent committees would have to be appointed to supervise tho starters and see that the machines were properly equipped for a hazardous flight to Australia. Others interested in aviation praised the idea, and expressed tho view that it would do a great deal for aviation at a time when further encouragement was necessary. In many quarters it is agreed that no Australian would have a°chanco of winning the prize against aviators who would have tho backing of important organisations all over the world.