RECORD LONG FLIGHT

Taranaki Daily News, 8 October 1928, Page 14

RECORD LONG FLIGHT

ROME TO BRAZIL NON-STOP ITALIANS TRAVEL OVER 5000 MILES IN THE AIR FOR TWO DAYS. Details of the Longest non-stop aeroplane flight on record, accomplished early in July by Captain Ferrarin and Major del Prete, who flew from Rome to Brazil (5024 miles) in about 51 hours, are to hand in the August number of the Aero Digest. The magnitude of the flight may be judged from the fact that the previous world’s distance record was 3911 miles, accomplished by Chamberlain and Levine in their flight to Germany from the U.S.A. more than a year ago, and that the longest hop of the Southern Cross in her Pacific flight was 3200 miles. The machine in which the flight was accomplished was a special SavoiaMarchetti monoplane —the closest approach to the flying wing, the dream of designers, since the early days of flying—the unusual features of which are an interesting departure from standard landplane design practice, approaching more closely a combination of sail-plane and flying-boat arrangement. The principal feature of construction is that the 550 horse-power water-cooled Fiat engine is mounted high above the wing and the oseupants. UNPRETENTIOUS DEPARTURE. The airmen took off from Montecello aerodrome, near Rome, at 6.51'a.m. on July 3, their departure being witnessed by only a small crowd of Italian Government officials. Their course lay across the Mediterranean, down the coast of Africa, and across the Atlantic via Cape Verde. The tanks contained from 850 to 900 gallons of fuel, and there were 60 gallons of oil. A special runway a mile long had been constructed for the take-off, and it was none too long. The ’plane took the air at the very end of the runway, climbed slowly, and pointed out to sea, the course laid for Gibraltar. Across the Mediterranean the flyers continued to climb slowly from an altitude of about 1060 feet, and when they sighted the African coast near Algiers they had attained an altitude of about 1200 feet. At this point they encountered their first trouble. The temperature of the air suddenly rose to 95 degrees Fahrenheit, affecting the temperature of their fueL They veered northward, away from the African coast, to seek lower temperatures. Early in the morning [they met low fog. over which they flew ias far as Gibraltar, passing over the Straits at 5.15 p.m. Shortly afterwards a local storm was encountered, [the air for a time being exceedingly bumpy. They were flying fast—about 130 miles an hour—and quickly flew cut of the active storm area into smoother going, climbing to about 3000 feet. They flew down the coast of Africa at' this altitude without seeing it because of continuous clouds and fog. Shortly after noon the weather cleared, • and they went down between clouds to have a look at the coast, finding themselves at Cape Jubi. They were last sighted over the mainland at Villa Cisneros, and were reported by a steamer neat the Cape Verde Islands, 22 hours out from Rome. So far the flight had been extremely fast- —an average of 136 miles an hour. ACROSS THE OCEAN.

Fifty minutes after leaving the coast [the aeroplane nosed into thick clouds, iand climbed slowly, flying blind, hoping to get out. At 11,000 feet the airmen were still in the clouds, and stayed ■there during much of the night with now and then a break which gave them a look at the stars. From 11 p.m. until 2 a.m. they flew blind without a break. Near the equator the sky appeared again, but fog lay on the surface of the ocean. As they approached the South American coast they took repeated bearings from the stars, and were able as dawn approached to authenticate their astronomy and locate themselves with a reasonable degree f accuracy. At this point, still some hundreds of miles off the coast, they encountered head winds from the southeast which drove them a little to the east of their course, and this continued until they sighted land. This was at 3 o’clock in the afternoon, and they were flying at 12,000 feet. The first land they saw they learned later was Cape Rocco. They came down for a better look, but clouds were gathering, and when they flew over the land it was completely covered. They proceeded down the coast towards Bahia by compass, hoping to stretch their already record-breaking flight to Rio de Janeiro. The weather, however, grew steadily worse, and after flying for an hour and twenty minutes without a chance to take their drift or get a bearing from the coast, buried in fog and clouds, they decided to turn back and seek a landing at Port Natal, where last January the Frenchmen, Costes and Lebrix, landed under much the same weather conditions. Gradually they worked through the clouds, and feeling their way they found Port Natal, but were unable to locate the landing field, which lies behind treacherous hills some fifteen miles to the north-east of Port Natal. Their fuel supply nearly exhausted, they realised that something must be done, and that quickly. Near the little fishing village of Touros they were cruising along slowly at 300 feet, and sighting a sandy pit, came down. The wheels sank in the soft sand after a short roll, damaging the landing gear, and the great flight was over. They had been in the air approximately 51 hours, and had completed a flight of 4448.82 miles, according to United States naval computations, basing the figures on the straight airline distance from Rome. Actually they flew 5024 miles according to their route through Gibraltar and over the Cape Verde Islands. FLYERS’ RECORDS. Ferrarin and • del Prete have long been classed with Major Mario de Bernardi, Schneider Cup winner and world's speed champion, and Commander de Pinedo, pioneer Italian transatlantic flyer, as members of a group of pitots that both during and since the war has kept Italy among the leaders in aviation. Major del Prete accompanied de Pinedo on his flight to Africa, and thence across the South Atlantic to Brazil in February, 1927. Their exploit did not end until they had flown back and forth across the forests and mountains of the Americas, and again across the Atlantic and home via the Azores. Ferrarin began his career as a pilot of pursuit ships and Caproni bombers during the war. He was one of the

little band of nicked pilots who accompanied D’Annunzio on his famous propaganda flight over Vienna near the end of the war. In 1920, he made a 10,000-mile flight from Rome to Tokio, intending to continue on across the Pacific. The Italian Air Ministry, however, ordered him home before he could make that attempt. In 1922 he was the winner of the Aviation Grand Cup of Italy in a 1250-miles race. It is interesting to note in connection with the machine in which the flight above described was made that Alessandro Marchetti is working on a definite design for a monoplane ato. » the same general lines of the transatlantic 'plane, with a wing spread of no less than 350 feet. The largest aeroplane in the world to-day is a Beardmore, measuring 160 feet across the wings.