AVIATION

Otago Witness, Issue 4063, 26 January 1932, Page 24

AVIATION

IMPERIAL AIRWAYS THE LONDON-INDIA SERVICE. SYDNEY, January 19. Sir Walter Nicholson, a director of Imperial Airways, is visiting Australia in connection with the proposal to allow Imperial Airways to continue the LondonIndia air service to Australia. He said he intended to ascertain whether the Commonwealth Government would provide a subsidy, without which the Karachi-Aus-tralia link was impossible. He is returning to England later via New Zealand. CAPE AIR MAIL INAUGURATED. RUGBY, January 20. Shortly after mid-day to-day one of the great four-engined land planes of Imperial Airways took off from Croydon carrying bags of mails which will reach Capetown, 8000 miles distant, in 11 days. This inaguration of the Cape air mail marked a new and important stage in air communications, which haae been steadily developed during the last eight years. The new route will not be’open for regular passenger traffic until March, but Mr Francis Bertram, deputy director of civil aviation, and Sir Wyell Vyvyan were travelling on the service to-day. The new route is the longest organised air line in the world, and it means that difficulties have been overcome during its organisation through the length of Africa. Deserts and swamps in the north, rapids on the Nile, high altitudes, and high temperatures near the Equator, forest and bush country and liability to violent storms make this airway one of the most trying to prepare for commercial operation.

AIR MINISTRY’S FLYING BOAT. CONTRACT CANCELLED. LONDON, January IS. On the grounds of economy the Air Ministry has cancelled the contract for the flying boat, and work has ceased. A previous message stated: The largest flying boat in the world is being built at Vickers factory to the order of the Air Ministry. It is a six-engined wonder, and eclipses Germany's pride, the Do.X. The Vickers boat resembles a monster fish with a tail high up in the air, tapering to an enormous belly, and ending in a huge blunt nose, which is also in the air. Only the belly will be in the water, enabling the liner to ride the heaviest waves. The engines will be out of reach of even mountainous seas. The equipment includes restaurants, baths, and sleeping berths.

KINGSFORD SMITH’S RETURN. ARRIVAL AT DARWIN. DARWIN, January 19. Air-commodore Kingsford Smith arrived at 1.46 this afternoon (local time). He started from Koepang yesterday but had to return owing to bad weather. He left again at 7.50 this morning.

GLAD TO BE BACK. DARWIN, January 19. Kingsford Smith made a perfect landin" in perfect weather. He said that Koepang was fearfully muddy and the grass was very long. It needed 200 natives to pull the plane out of the mud before it could move. He was bitterly disappointed at having to turn back yesterday, but he feared a landing at Darwin in the dark. He lightened the plane and discarded everything that was not absolutely necessary. He also carried a minimum of petrol when he was crossing the Timor Sea to-day and as he passed over the steamer Marella he saluted her. He was glad to get back to Australia again and so were his crew. He received a message from the civil aviation authorities congratulating him on his safe transport of the mails both ways. The total weight of the mails he is bringing is 7131 b. He expects the trip to show a slight profit. When he was questioned about rumours in Sydney that he would possibly be a candidate" for the East Sydney Federal seat Kingsford Smith replied that he had no intention of entering the political arena. He said he would attend Signor Mussolini’s conference of aces if he happened to be in Rome in May.

A RECORD ESTABLISHED. RUGBY, January 19. By reaching Port Darwin 12| days after leaving England Air-commodore Kingsford Smith has established a fresh record for the journey in a commercial machine. ARRIVAL AT BRISBANE. SYDNEY, January 21. Air-commodore Kingsford Smith reached Brisbane at 2.5 this afternoon. He expects to land in Sydney about 8 o’clock tmnight. LONG FLIGHT COMPLETED. PLANE REACHES SYDNEY. SYDNEY, January 21. Kingsford Smith arrived at dusk. He ■was received with lusty cheers and warmly congratulated by scores of admirers and aerodrome officials on his record trip in the big monoplane, which

was dirty and mud-spattered. He has now completed nine trips across the Timor Sea. He is delighted to be back in his home town and he will leave for Melbourne at 6 o'clock in the morning.

DELIVERED IN MELBOURNE. MELBOURNE, January 22. Air-commodore Kingsford Smith arrived at 10.5 a.m. from Sydney and delivered the mails. Later he departed in the Southern Star for Tasmania. He will return to Sydney to-morrow.

FLIGHT BY ENGLISHWOMAN. RUGBY, January IS. An Englishwoman’s tour by air, during which friends in many parts of Africa, including the Cape, were visited, was concluded by the return of Mrs Westenra She was piloted by Captain Mackintosh and used an ordinary Puss Moth machine. Despite the long tour and 90 landings and take-offs not a single replacement and no repairs were necessary and the machine was using the same plugs that were fitted at the beginning of the journey.

BRITISH AIR MAIL TRAFFIC. RUGBY, January 19. A striking increase in air mail traffic during last year is recorded by the Post-master-general. About 2.200,000 letters, weighing over 52 tons, were sent by air, an increase of about 10,000 a week over 1930. A FATAL TAIL SPIN TWO BROTHERS KILLED. LONDON, January 23. Two people were killed as an aeroplane in which a transport pilot was training his brother to fly crashed into the crowded East River before hundreds of witnesses. The machine entered a tail spin at 1000 feet and fell close to a freighter which was feeling her way through the narrow channel. The freighter pulled the wreckage from the water.