SEEKS NEW RECORD

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1078, 16 September 1930, Page 9

SEEKS NEW RECORD

FLIGHT TO AUSTRALIA BEGINS TODAY CAPT. MATTHEWS’S EFFORT British Official Wireless Heed. 11.20 a.m. RUGBY, Monday. Five British airmen recently decided to compete in a friendly 10,000-miles air race to Australia, in the hope of improving the record of 15J (lays, established by Bert Hinkler in February, 1925. The first to leave will be Captain F. J. Matthews, one of the instructors of the London Aero Club, who taught Miss Amy Johnson to fly. Captain Matthews, who is no relation to James Matthews, who piloted the plane in which he and Brie Hook were lost in the jungle while on their way to Australia some months ago, intends to leave Croydon Airdrome early tomorrow morning, flying alone in a Puss Moth light airplane. Matthews has extra petrol tanks giving his plane a range of i;500 miles, and is carrying a rifle in case of landing in dangerous areas. He hopes to make Sofia in the first hop. Other airmen mentioned as likely to make a similar attempt shortly are:—Captain Barnard, the famous long-distance flier, Mr. Murray, who is well-known for his aerial acrobatic performances, Major Pickthrone, who flew during the war, and competed in the first King's Cup race, and Mr. C. J. Ilabot, also a war-time airman.