Across Atlantic

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 689, 14 June 1929, Page 9

Across Atlantic

FRENCH PLANE WINGING Americans Come to Grief (United P.A.—By Telegraph — Copyright) (Australian and A’.Z. Press Association) am - ■ OLD ORCHARD (Maine), Thursday. ftJNOiHER Atlantic flight has commenced. . uean Assolant, Rene Lefevre, and Armona Lotti, in the giant ochre-winged French monoplane Yellow Bird made a perfect take-off at 10.10 this morning on their longdeierred attempted flight to Paris, while 11 minutes later two Americans, Roger Q. Williams and Lewis Yancey narrowly escaped serious injury, when their plane Green Flash ploughed into the sands and was greatly damaged.

The Americans sped down the cres-cent-shaped beach in an attempted take-oft on a projected 4,750-mile flight t 0 R? me > but they had travelled only a third of a mile when the 6,5001 b craft tore into the soft sands and almost overturned. The airmen were not injured, but both wheels of the plane were torn off. The propeller was smashed, a wing broken, the fabric torn, and the engine damaged, making it unlikely that a further attempt will be made at the flight. Meanwhile, having overcome the weather obstacles which had kept them land-bound for three weeks, the Frenchmen were proceeding northeastward toward Cape Sable, with the expectation of reaching Paris in 30 hours.

The French plane, though totalling in weight 13,7001 b, made a beautiful take off with Assolant at the controls, Lefevre navigating, and Lotti taking charge of the radio. Within half an hour after their departure, Lieutenant Leonard Melka, of the United States Coastguard, who intended to escort both planes over the first 100 miles, returned to the" beach and reported that the Yellow Bird was travelling at high speed, and outdistanced his amphibian, forcing him to abandon his plan to accompany them further. Lieutenant Melka declared that the Frenchmen’s motor seemed to be functioning perfectly and that the craft was making excellent time.