CRASH AT CROYDON

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22975, 1 March 1938, Page 11

CRASH AT CROYDON

AIRCRAFT ON TRIAL THREE OF CREW INJURED FINAL TEST BEING MADE By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright LONDON, Feb. 27 A British long-distance aeroplane equipped with a robot pilot crashed at Croydon while undergoing its final test flight before leaving for Australia. Three of the crew were seriously injured. Mr. A. W. Mac Arthur Onslow, who was to have flown the aeroplane, with the assistance of the robot pilot, to Australia, was not on board. The machine, which was to have left Croydon aerodrome for Australia as soon as the weather was favourable, is the result of more than two years' experimenting. It was built for the Air Travel and Survey Proprietary of Camden, New South Wales, which is mapping the unsurveyed parts of Australia. Sir. Onslow has been trained in England as a survey pilot. The robot pilot, linked to a wireless direction finder, enables the aeroplane to be piloted automatically on a set course, correcting wind drift or a tendency to stall. The steadiness and accuracy obtained enables aerial mapping to be carried out with mathematical precision. SEARCH CONTINUED MISSING AEROPLANE RESULT AGAIN FRUITLESS LONDON, Feb. 27 Although the Air Ministry abandoned yesterday the search for the missing Vickers-Welleslev aeroplane, which was last heard of at 7.15 a.m. on Thursday two miles east of Braemar, the search was resumed to-day following a report that wreckage had been seen in the Cheviot Hills, near Langholm, Dumfriesshire. Royal Air Force machines to-day searched the hills along the Scottish border. A ground search was also fruitless. A pilot participating in the search said the counti'v was so rugged that a whole squadron of burned-out aeroplanes might be on the ground and yet be invisible from the air. ITALIAN FLIERS RESCUED THREE DAYS IN DESERT ROME, Feb. 27 The Italian politician and aviator Marshal Balbo personally rescued Count Franco Mazzott' and two companions, who had been forced to land in the Sahara Desert. The airmen were uninjured. They had spent three days in the desert.