FLYING RECORD

Southland Times, Issue 21072, 2 May 1930, Page 7

FLYING RECORD

DUCHESS OF BEDFORD

LONDON TO CAPE TOWN AND BACK

19,000 MILES IN 201 DAYS

(British Official Wireless), Rugby, April 30.

The Duchess of Bedford, in her Fokker aeroplane, piloted by Captain Barnard, landed at Croydon at 5.30 this afternoon. She left Lynipne on the morning of April 10, and has thus accomplished the flight to Cape Town and back, a distance of 19,000 miles, in 201 days. Had her machine not been forced down in Bulgaria, owing to a blocked oil pipe, the journey would have been completed yesterday evening in 19 J days. Nevertheless, the Duchess and her pilot have created a brilliant new record. They have done the double journey in 191 flying days. As one day was spent at Cape Town, moreover, their single journey from England to Cape Town in 9J days has beaten by a big margin the previous record made by Lieutenant Murdoch, of the South African Air Force.

A large crowd had gathered at Croydon aerodrome to welcome the aviators, including Air Vice-Marshal Sir Sefton Brancker, Director of Civil Aviation, Lieutenant-Com-mander Perrin, representing the Royal Aero Club, and Lady Cobham.

The Duchess of Bedford is in her 65th year. She took up flying in 1927, qualifying' as a pilot. The ample lands of the family seat, Ledburn Abbey, provided an excellent site for her first lessons, and in spite of her age she proved a singularly apt pupil with a leaning towards the adventurous. Within a month or two she made a flight from Ledburn to Paris. Madrid, Tangier and back. In June, 1925, she started on a flight to India in the monoplane 'Princess Xenia accompanied by Captain Barnard. The plan was to go out and back in eight days, but misfortune befel the machine in the Persian Gulf region, and the flight had to be abandoned.