RECORD AIR VOYAGE

Taranaki Daily News, 21 September 1931, Page 14

RECORD AIR VOYAGE

ROUND AUSTRALIA FLIGHT. SEVEN AND A-HALF DAYS. Sydney, Sept. 10. Round Australia in 83 hours 35 minutes! That was the actual flying time of H. F. Broadbent, the Sydney airman, when he created a new roundAustralia flight record of seven and ahalf days. The previous record was held by Air-Commodore Kingsford Smith, who accomplished the journey in 10 days 5 hours, and now Mr. Broadbent expresses the opinion that the flight could be made in five days. The actual mileage covered by Mr. Broadbent was 7470 miles, slightly greater than that to the credit of Kingsford Smith. As showing the reliability of the modern aeroplane, it is of interest to study the eight hops accomplished without incident by Mr, Broadbent. .These were: —Sydney to Townsville, 1298 miles; Townsville to Brunette Downs, 860 miles; Brunette Downs to Darwin, 700 miles; Darwin to Broome, 830 miles; Broome to forced landing near Perth, 1240 miles; thence to Cook, 1000 miles; Cook to Melbourne, 1050 miles; Melbourne to Sydney, 500 miles. When Mr. Broadbent first attempted the record he was forced down in North Queensland and was missing for two days. He was discovered alongside his aeroplane, and it says' much for his courage that he should have returned to Sydney and made a fresh start. On the fifth day out he caused some concern by not reporting at Perth at |iightfall, but i% transpired that, when overtaken by darkness, he thought it best to land on a sandy patch, where he spent the night in complete comfort reading a book. He says that he had no desire for sleep until *his self-imposed task was completed. “I don’t think I will attemp to break my own record,” Mr. Broadbent said when ho reached Sydney on Monday. “But I may go round again when I get time. It is a splendid trip—quite fascinating. The only thing that worried me da/ after day was that I did not know when darkness would set in. Darkness used to come on at a different hour each day, and I could not keep track of it.

The only exciting incident in my long trip occurred near Cioncurry, in NorthWest Queensland. The temperature must have been 105 degrees when I arrived there about mid-day, and, as frequently happens in the tropics, the

bus stubbornly refused to answer to the helm when I was over the aerodrome, and I grazed the top of the hangar roof. The rugged grandeur of the north-west corner of Australia is remarkable.” Australia is now waiting for fflngs-

i ford Smith’s attack on Mollison’s record , flight from Wyndham to London. A, , machine similar to that used by Mr> ; Broadbent is now on the way out, and it is in this that the flight will ba ■ mado.