AVIATION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21983, 19 June 1933, Page 7

AVIATION

FLIGHT TO ENGLAND

ULM TO LEAVE THIS WEEK. SYDNEY, June 17. Charles Ulm stated that he would probably leave Richmond next week on a flight to England in "Faith in Australia," a triple-engined monoplane. He said he would not attempt to break the record, but should get there in eight days. SURVEY PLANE ARRIVAL AT KOEPANG. LONDON, June. 16. A message from Koepang states that the Imperial Airways plane Astrsea, which is surveying the air route from England to Australia, arrived there at 4.T3 p.m. LANDING ON BATHURST ISLAND. DARWIN, June 17. (Received June 18, at 6.30 p.m.) _ The Administrator has received a wireless message from the Astraea, which left Koepang this morning, stating that she would be unable to reach Darwin owing to head winds, which delayed the flight. The petrol ran short, and the plane landed at the aerodrome on Bathurst Island. Arrangements are being made to send petrol and oil across by launch. Bathurst Island has an emergency landing ground a mile from the Roman Catholic mission station, so that the plane's crew should "be well cared for. Strong south-easterly winds are blowing, and the visibility is bad owing to bush along the coast. The launch should arrive at the island in about IQ' hours, but the landing ground is a long way from the beach. Hence the Astraea is unlikely to resume her flight until Monday. MISSION VESSEL TO ASSIST. DARWIN, June 18. (Received June 18, at 7.25 p.m.) Owing to the difficulty of getting a local craft ready for the trip to Bathurst Island the mission vessel will come from the Island to-day and return in the evening with petrol. The Astrsea is the first plane to visit Bathurst Island, where there is a runway two miles long by half a mile wide. Major H. G. Brackley, air superintendent of Imperial Airways, Limited, left Croydon in the Astraa on Monday, May 29. The machine is a new foureng'ined Armstrong-Siddeley monoplane of the Atalanta class, with a cruising 1 speed of 130 miles an hour. It will operate eventually on the SingaporeKarachi section, but will take up the running on the Rangoon-Calcutta-Karachi section, which is to be opened on October 1. It will carry the Christmas mail to Singapore. The crew of the Astraa includes Captain A. R. Prendergast, Messrs C. Griffiths, W. J. Brown (radio operator), and W. E. Hi':kman, an Armstrong-Siddeley engineer. Tne machine reached Calcutta en route to Darwin on June 0.