KINGSFORD-SMITH’S FLIGHT.

Otago Witness, Issue 3994, 30 September 1930, Page 11

KINGSFORD-SMITH’S FLIGHT.

AIACHINE CALLED SOUTHERN CROSS JUNIOR.

The A r acuum Oil Company has received cable advice that Wing-commander Kingsford Smith will take off from Heston aerodrome, near London, instead of from Cramwell, as was originally planned, in tea days’ time. Instead o a Gipsy Aloth he will use an Avian single-seater aeroplane fitted with a Hermes engine. The machine has been christened the Southern Cross Junior. A number of interesting photographs featuring Kingsford Smith and his new machine will be carried by him in his flight to Australia. His itinerary in Australia will be Darwin, Alice Springs, Broken Hill, and Sydney. Although he has never spoken publicly about Bert Hinkler’s record, Kingsford Smith has, on many occasions, referred to the possibility of reducing the time between England and Australia by at least three days. Primarily, it was to make definite arrangements for this attempt that Kingsford Smith went to England, and the flight of the Atlantic, which he recently completed, was decided later. It enabled him to fill in time while awaiting the construction of a light plane in England, and also provide him with the opportunity of taking the Southern Cross, back to California. The Vacuum Oil Company finalised arrangements for the England to Australia solo flight by means of the radio telephone. The ompany has arranged supplies of spirit and oil for the flight, and these have been laid down on the proposed route at Rome, Athens, Aleppo, Basra, Bushire, Bandar Abbas, Karachi, Allahabad, Rangoon, Singapore, AtamboQa, and Darwin.