YEAR’S GREAT RECORD

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18593, 2 January 1935, Page 5

YEAR’S GREAT RECORD

THE ROYAL AIR FORCE

47,0n0,n0n miles flown

FEW SERIOUS ACCIDENTS

(British Official Wireless.) Roe. noon. RUGBY, Jan. 1. Royal Air Force squadrons achieved a remarkable now flying record in the 12 months' just ended. Service aeroplanes flew a total distance of at least 47,000,000 miles, a greater mileage than in any previous year since the war.

Despite, this distance record, serious accidents were considerably fewer than in previous years, and actually less than in 1921, when the Royal Air Force was about one-third of its present size, and flew little more than one-tenth of tho distance covered last year. The new record Is all the more striking in view of the increased flying last year in air .exercises and manoeuvres, conducted as far as possible under active service conditions, and often at night. Moreover, the Royal Air Force performs patrol and policing duties over 1,000,000 square miles of territory, and flies daily in three continents, much of the time in bad weather and over perilous country, where engine failure must involve serious consequences. Air Vice-Marshal Newall has been appointed an additional member of the Air Council, and will he responsible for the administration of trie directorates of organisation, equipment, works, and buildings. He was appointed air officer commanding the Royal Air Force in the middle of the year 1931.