DIFFICULT TO GET SUITABLE PLANE

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 15, 10 January 1929, Page 7

DIFFICULT TO GET SUITABLE PLANE

MOllt AND OWEN AT HOME. desire to return by air to AUSTRALIA. LONDON, January 7. Lieut. Moir and FJying Officer Owen, whose splendid airmanship during the ill-fated flight of the Spirit of Australia, is warmly regal fled by British experts, who realise just what the Australians faced and overcame in an over-laden machine unltil the regrettable crash at Athens, are determined to make the return journey to Australia by air. At present there are no De Haviland machines with Jaguar engines available for this purpose. A smaller type of machine was used by Sir Alan Cobham and approved by the Air Ministry. The oil company .'concerned has agreed to re-lay the deports as soon as the money is forthcoming. The aviators have made strenuous endeavours t'o obtain a machine. MUii went to Amsterdam and interviewed Fokkers, who said they would, willingly have provided a machine free if one had been available, but owing to heavy orders they would be unable t 0 do so before September. A British company now building Fokkers in Birmingham, has suflicieiijl confidence in Moir and Owen to allow them to take out a Fokker, with passengers, if they can wait a few months, but the aviators feel that time is the most pressing aspect!. Advices from Australia suggest. that 1 £2500 has been subscribed, and they are anxious that the additional j am'ount should be made available in y order to finish the flight, as planned, at once. , i