A BOLD SCHEME

Southland Times, Issue 17547, 10 January 1914, Page 7

A BOLD SCHEME

(From Our Own Correspondent). LONDON, Nov. 26. M. Vedrinos, the celebrated French aviator who recently llew from his native land to Bohemia without troubling to inform the German authorities that he proposed to fly across Teutonic territory, is now said to be contemplating an aerial trip to Australia. It sounds like a very big undertaking, but given a fair share of luck in the matter of weather and a reliable machine ho might succeed in making the trip.. M, Vedrines has explained lo the representatives of an Aus- | trian Journal h!s plans for the continu- ! ation of his flight from Bohemia, j After flying on lo 'Constantinople, he t says lie is going either to Ceylon or Lake t Chad, in the Soudan. “I should prefer the latter.” he said. "If I can get the necessary quantity of petrol sent to Tinibuctoo I shall certainly fly through Egypt and the Soudan to Eake Chad. "But our military administration is dilatory. Before it has despatched the petrol I shall lose patience, in which case I shall try Lo get to Ceylon ami thence lo Australia, from the southern point of the Malay peninsula there arc islands all the way to the northern point of Australia; thus, if I once get to Ceylon you may expect to hear from me in Australia.” M. Vedrines Is silent about when he intends to make a start. Explaining why lie “rushed” the frontiers on his flight from France to Bohemia M. Vedrines said that if airmen listened to governments there would bo no more flying. “Good heavens.”’ lie oxclaimed, “they want to close the skies against us. Then we may as well retire from business.” The distance from Paris to Lake Chad by way of Egypt is very roughly 4000 miles; the distance to Northern Australia by way of Ceylon 10,000 miles. The aerial journey to Australia would, it appears. be made from Constantinople to Crete and thence to Port Said. From Port Said the aviator might either flyup the Nile valley as far as Khartoum and thence across country to Peiim or Aden, or straight to Aden from Suez, a matter of 1300 miles. That would be a pretty long non-stop run, but the 2100 miles of sea intervening between Aden and Colombo would be a much more serious matter. At an average of 50 miles an hour it would mean a continuous flight of 42 hours’ endurance. Then, again, from Colombo to Penang or to Singapore would mean a further non-stop flight of about 1300 miles, and thence onward to Port Darwin, though there are plenty of islands where lie might land, the places where he could be sure of finding supplies of petrol and lubricating oils and other aviation necessaries are few and far between. O.h the.whole- M. Vedrines’s proposal to make an aerial

voyage to Australia stains a trifle premature. Some day. no doubt, stieli a journey will be made, and probably that da> is not far distant. But to-day I fancy you could find plenty of speculators to lay 100 to 1 against tbe frenchman succeeding "at the first time of asking,” whatever roiUe#hc adopted.