THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES. THURSDAY, MAY 22, 1919. FLYING THE ATLANTIC.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17631, 22 May 1919, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES. THURSDAY, MAY 22, 1919. FLYING THE ATLANTIC.

Now that the necessities of war have ceased to absorb all the energies which the nations could spare for aeroplane construction and the purpose of air attack and defence, the attention of airmen is being directed in healthy rivalry to the accomplishment of flights calculated to demonstrate effectively the marvellous advances that have been made in the mastery of the air. We may confidently anticipate that the near future holds an astonishing list of new air records. The era of nights that are to throw a girdle of communication round the earth with unprecedented celerity is even now being steadily ushered in. The Trans-Atlantic passage has long been the enterprising and dauntless airman's goal, and immense interest has attached to the attempts to make this long oversea flight in which both British and American airmen have been participating this week. American airmen, using a seaplane, which gave them the advantage of being able to come down to the water and to refuel, have actually accomplished the flight to the Azores. While this constitutes a. Trans-Atlantic flight it is not one from mainland to mainland and is of a less sensational character than the non-stop flight from St. John's, Newfoundland, attempted by Mr Harry Hawker—an Australian by the way— in company with Commander Mackenzie Grieves as pilot, which has unfortunately, there seems too much reason to believe, ended in a tragedy. While the feasibility of crossing the Atlantic in an aeroplane of the modern type, provided the conditions are reasonably favourable, can no longer be a matter of doubt, it is most regrettable that the first effort by a British airman to accomplish the foat has proved disastrous. The Admiralty is being blamed

because no provision was made by it for patrolling tlio Atlantic during the flight and for succouring the airmen in the event of their coming to grief. Deplorable as it is that Mr Hawker and hi 9 companion sacrificed their lives in an attempt to secure for British airmanship the honour of tho accomplishment of the iirst flight from one Atlantic coast to the other, it is only fair to recognise that the effort was not in any senso under the Government control, being in fact tho outcome of the offer of a handsome prize by an enterprising newspaper, and that the patrolling of the Atlantic by war vessels would°not necessarily hav-o ensured the safety of tho airmen. The road to success has almost invariably been blazed by the record of disaster, and it is a melancholy circumstance that in this respect history has, as w© must conclude, repeated itself in the caso of Mr Hawker and Commander Grieves. The reports that they had so far progressed in their adventurous rush through space that they were literally within sight of their objective when they failed must be dismissed as entirely • apocryphal in the ■light of the latest' information, which suggests that they must have been lost in mid-Atlantic and that the lowpowered wireless equipment of their machine—a ; single-engine two-seater Sopwith biplane—did not admit of their calling to their aid any vessel on the high seas. The imagination is stirred by the gallantry of their effort, futile and disastrous though it was, and there can be no feeling other than of deep regret at the tragic termination of the careers of an airman like Mr Hawker whose reputation was that of one of the most experienced air pilots in the world, and of his not less intrepid companion. As Major ,C. C. Turner has observed, in a newspaper article, a successful flight across the Atlantic in a two-seater single-engine machine, only just able to carry sufficient fuel for a fortunate journey, would be an adventure that would scarcely place the Trans-Atlantic air service on a regular basis, but the big aeroplane, or flying boat, offers a fair promise of success, and with practically no danger.