BRITAIN TRIUMPHS AGAIN.

Taranaki Daily News, 14 February 1933, Page 6

BRITAIN TRIUMPHS AGAIN.

Depressions may come and depressions may go, hut the indomitable British spirit remains unquenched by whatever deluge of adversity may pour upon it. This has recently been conspicuously manifest in the success of British pilots in what may be termed pioneering aviation. A few days ago a Royal Air Force machine broke the world’s record for a non-stop long-distance flight, thus bestowing on the nation a triple crown, for Britain already held the speed and height records for aeroplanes. Now comes the news that Mollison has made the first solo crossing from east to west acrpss the South Atlantic, emulating the recent exploit of his wife, who broke the record from London to Cape Town. Mollison’s remark that “it is a lot of fun, this flying, but it is work too” indicates the typical sang froid with which the Briton enters into everything, but it also serves as a reminder that pioneering flights are not merely a pleasant diversion. They call for high qualities of technical skill and physical endurance, and betray in those who undertake them national characteristics that command deep pride and admiration. Coming nearer home it is refreshing to see that New Zealand is by no means being left behind in the development of an air sense. Under the aegis of the Western Federated Flying Club a pilot sixteen years old is already handling his machine like a veteran and giving an appropriate retort to criticism of the manhood of to-day. When it is remembered that the geographical nature of New Zealand is not particularly suitable for flying, and that the Dominion has a comparative lack of other facilities such as newmodel machines the wonder is not that we have not progressed further in aviation but that we have gone so far.