“SMITHY’S” PLANS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 811, 4 November 1929, Page 8

“SMITHY’S” PLANS

AIRMAN ON THE AORANGI PLANES GREET HIM Two airplanes circled over the Aorangi as she came to anchor in the harbour yesterday afternoon. URO.M the deck of the big ij nei ' A Squadron-Leader Kingston! Smith i hero of the Pacific and Tasman flights watched them with admiring eyes. The circling planes were a tribm, i to the great airman, who is returning !to Australia after the memorable flight of the Southern Cross from Australia to England. It will be remembered that the start i of the flight on that occasion almost ended in disaster. The disappearance of the Southern Cross is still a viTifl memory and the inquiry which fog lowed a more painful one. Although the court of inquiry returned a find, ing which exonerated “Smithy” and his team he has not done with it yet. “As far as I am concerned the inquiry isn't finished,” he said last evening on the Aorangi. "| am waiting to find out who started it and . . He left the conversation in mid-air. Getting information from Kingsfoifl Smith is not the easiest job in the world. His remarks are bitten oft rather quickly and contain only the barest possible statements. The Southern Cross is still in England, he said. She has been completely overhauled in Holland by Fokker experts. "Terribly torn about when we landed there. ... I don’t know what we are going to do yet. .. . We will either fly her across the Atlantic or back to Australia ... one or the other.” Squadron-Leader Kingsford SmiUi will stay in Australia for the next four or five months, during which time he will organise the air routes between Sydney and Brisbane and Sydney and Melbourne. He will be assisted in this work by his old team —TJlm, MoWilliams and Litchfield, who are already in Australia and on the joh, They have formed a company which is to operate the routes. Yes, Imperial Airways will do well, he thinks, despite the two crashes they have had. He is opposed to air companies being subsidised. “It is spoon-feeding them,” remarked the intrepid airman. “We are starting in Australia without a subsidy, excejt for the surcharge on mails. Start with a subsidy if you like, but only for a time.” In 12 mouths’ time “Smithy" hopes to fly across the Tasman again and he firmly believes that eventually a commercial service will link Australia and New Zealand. “It’s all a matter of time,” he says. Commercial flying in England is making wonderful strides and the recent Hendon air pageant was “a great show.” He saw airmen performing stunts which he could not and would not attempt. It was wonderful and spectacular flying, The Dutch service from Amsterdam to Batavia was a fine thing and followed a good route. The Dutch, he said, were extending their services very quickly. The great airman favours multiengine designs and tri-motored machines, which ensure confidence in ths airways and allow them to run to schedule. He considers that if ertr machines fly regularly across the Tasman giant flying-boats of the Dornlet 12-engine type would be the most suit able. Today Squadron-Leader Kiugsfoii Smith is meeting members of ths Auckland Aero Club. Captain J. Seabrook and Captain W. S. i. Bloomfield, two members of the club, circled over the Aorangi to welcome the airmail yesterday aftecnoon.