ATLANTIC CROSSED

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 690, 15 June 1929, Page 1

ATLANTIC CROSSED

French Airmen Land in Spain FLIGHT OF THE YELLOW BIRD Petrol Shortage Causes Anxiety (United Service) ®£F£ lv ® d 12 : 15 P™- LONDON, Friday. T 3 * J re ? C V lrplane Yellow Bird, which flew across the I Atlantic from Old Orchard, Maine, landed at Santander, in the north of Spain, at 9.30 a.m.

When the Yellow Bird struck the Spanish coast, the airmen attempted te continue along the coast, but they landed, not caring to take the risk of crossing the Ray of Biscay in the darkness, in view of the shortage of petrol. The airplane will be flown to Paris tomorrow. The huge ochrewinged French monoplane, manned by At. Armona Lotti, junr.. sponsor of the flight, as co-pilot, M. Jean Assolant, as pilot, and M. Rene Lefevre as navigator, left Old Orchard, Alaiue, at 10.10 a.m. yesterday. Santander, where the Yellow Bird landed, is one of the principal seaports of northern Spain, capital of the province of Santander, 207 miles uorth of Madrid, on the Bay of Biscay. An earlier message said the Yellow Bird wirelessed that she was 100 miles uorth of the Azores. A wireless message picked up at Bordeaux from a steamer reported that the Yellow Bird is midway between the Azores and Portugal, meeting a head wind, and slowing down. The pilot is worried about the heavy consumption of petrol, and hopes i there will be sutticieut to make Portu- ! gal. A message from Old Orchard, j Maine, whence the Yellow Bird hopped ' off, says:—Reports persist here that Arthur Schreiber, aged 22, is a stow- i away aboard the Yellow Bird: but no confirmation has been received by I radio from Lotti, so verification is ini-1 probable before the plane descends. ATLANTIC PIONEER SIR ARTHUR BROWN GIVEN A LUNCHEON FLIGHT TEN YEARS AGO (Australian and N.Z. Press Association) j ( U nited Service ) Reed. 9,5 a.m. LONDON', Friday. j A timid, hesitant little figure, Sir i

* | Arthur Whitten Brown made im- | promptu the best speech of the day, ■ in response to unprogrammed clamour at a \ ickers-Rolls-Royce luncheon at the Savoy, to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the first trans-Atlantic flight. That flight was accomplished by Sir John Alcock and Sir Arthur Whitten Brown. Held prisoner by the Turks when the war ended, Alcock returned home i and with Brown, who was then a lieui tenant in the Royal Air Force, entered | for the £IO,OOO prize offered by the Daily Mail” for a flight across the Atlantic. On June 14, 1919, they left Newfoundland in a Vickers-Vimy machine and the next morning arrived at Clifden, Ireland. The flight took 15 hours 57 minutes. A few days later both were knighted. Alcock was killed by his airplane crashing at: Cote d’Hvrard, j north of Rouen, on December 18, the i same year when flying from London | to Paris. Today s gathering was a most notable one. Almost every British aviator | of distinction was present, j The new Minister of Air, Lord ! Thomson, toasting the anniversary, 1 said he took it on himself to pick out ! tlie six best flights in the ten years. In these he included, firstly Brown’s and Alcock’s flight, of which too little I had been made. ! Then came the flights to Australia ; Of Sir Ross and Sir Keith Smith, Sir ' Alan Cobham and Mr. Bert Hinkler. ! The best ovation of the day greeted ; Hinkler's name. Lord Thomson said he had Hinkler’s authority for saying that the cost of his flight, to Australia was less than the second-class steamer fare. Lord j Thomson praised Australian developi meut, and pleaded for everyone’s coI operation in making the next ten I years of British aviation even more I noteworthy.