CHRISTMAS MAILS

Southland Times, Issue 21580, 18 December 1931, Page 7

CHRISTMAS MAILS

ARRIVAL AT CROYDON

SUCCESS OF KINGSFORD SMITH REGULAR SERVICE PLANNED /United Press Assn.-7-By Telegraph—Copyright.) London, December 16. Air-Commodore Kingsford Smith arrived at Crovdon with the Christmas air mail from Australia and New Zealand at 11.35 a.m., and the Post Office had delivered the whole of his mail in the City of London by 2 o’clock in the afternoon. The Southern Star made a perfect landing at Croydon. Kingsford Smith said he got off the I.e Touquet beach easily, being aided by local residents pushing his machine to firmer sands. He felt no ill effects of the carbon monoxide poisoning which had caused his breakdown on a previous flight. Kingsford Smith is now not likely to leave for Australia before December 23. He experienced a hurricane and blizzard in Southern Italy and had a bad hour. Kingsford Smith did not see Colonel Brinsmead at Alor Star owing to the necessity of pushing ahead immediately, but Colonel Brinsmead was still unconscious when he left. Kingsford Smith is consulting the Air Ministry regarding a regular service, for which he considers his machine is ideal. The Times, in an editorial, says that for the second time in his flying career, which has made him one of the world’s most famous airmen, Kingsford Smith came to the rescue of a stranded air mail. His achievement, in flying to London in a fortnight makes it certain that apart from accidents and delays due to weather, a regular mail service of ten to twelve days between England and Darwin may henceforth be regarded as practicable. After a slight mishap at Darwin, the Southern Star, piloted by Kingsford Smith, left Australia on December 3 for Alor Star to pick up the Christinas air mail in the wrecked Southern Sun, and take it on to London. Throughout the journey the airman made consistently fast time, keeping close to his schedule. The worst part of his emergency flight, according to cabled reports, was the trip between Karachi and Bushire, on which the Southern Star had a long battle with head winds. Last April, when the Imperial Airways liner City of Cairo, bringing the first air mail from London to Australia and New Zealand, crashed at Koepang, Kingsford Smith undertook to make emergency flights in the Southern Cross, first to Koepang and back, and immediately thereafter from Darwin to Akyab with the outward mail for London. He accomplished both without a hitch, and demonstrated his resourcefulness and skill. On September 24 Kingsford Smith left Wyndham on an attempted record flight to London in 71 days, or 24 hours faster than Scott’s and Mollison’s records. He made a fast journey to Singapore, where he dropped a note to a friend at the Air Base, saying: "Sorry; can’t stop; am in a real hurry this time’’; but he was brought down by darkness and storm about 80 miles south of Victoria Point, and had to spend a bad night on a beach fronting the jungle. Later, at Calcutta, he had to land owing to fainting attacks, while crossing the Bay of Bengal. On one occasion his aeroplane dropped from 3000 to 1000 feet before he recovered control. Though ill, and suffering from headaches, the airman on arrival at Bombay was still half a day ahead of Mollison’s record time. Krom Bushire to Baghdad Kingsford Smith experienced many difficulties through sandstorms, head winds, and a troublesome oil supply system. While flying over Turkish territory on the way to Aleppo the after effects of sunstroke forced him down at Milas, where ; the authorities “treated him as a suspicious I character and detained him” —long enough ' to end his hope of achieving a record. He ' arrived in London on October 7, from Rome, and received a cordial welcome from distinguished flyers. A nerve specialist ordered the airman to return to Australia by steamer, and take a three months’ rest from flying. On arrival at Melbourne on November 20 an Air Force doctor examined Kingsford Smith, and expressed the opinion that the airman's illness on his Australia-England flight was due to carbon monoxide fumes deflected from the aeroplane’s exhaust into the cockpit.