PLANE NEARLY AT HONOLULU

Southland Times, Issue 23152, 19 March 1937, Page 5

PLANE NEARLY AT HONOLULU

AVERAGE SPEED OF 166 MILES AN HOUR

(Received March 19, 1.5 a.m.)

NEW YORK, March 18. A coastguard station intercepted a message from Mrs Putnam, who had covered 1322 miles at an average speed of 166 miles an hour. She reported: “All’s well.”' A later message from Mrs Putnam, at 2.5 a.m., stated that she was 746 miles from Honolulu, and all was well. At her present speed she expected to arrive at 6.30 a.m. Captain Musick is only 980 miles out from Oakland, and the Hawaii clipper is 1139 miles.

In her proposed flight, Mrs Putnam, who is aged 39 and who was the first woman to fly the Atlantic, will cover 27,000 miles. Her Pacific course will be that which is being studied by the American Department of Commerce as a possible regular air route between the United States and Australia. It is intended that Captain Manning, her co-navlgator, shall be left in Australia, after which Mrs Putnam will fly and navigate her machine alone. Her machine is a huge twin-motored Lockhead Electra, which has been named the "Flying Laboratory.” It is equipped with radio and all the latest aids to flying, and has a range of 4000 miles. The flight is described as experimental, and Mrs Putnam has said that one of her objects is the study of human reactions. She has flown the Atlantic twice, and the Pacific from Hawaii to California. For years she held the women’s trans-Con-tinental speed record. Hers will be the first world flight attempted by a woman. It was announced last May that Perdue University, Indiana, had provided a fund of 50,000 dollars for Mrs Putnam’s flight.