SOUTHERN CROSS HAS GRAND RECORD

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19109, 30 June 1930, Page 1

SOUTHERN CROSS HAS GRAND RECORD

ENGINES STILL GOOD AFTER 80,000 MILES. (United Press Assn.—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) NEW YORK, June 28. On Wednesday morning, if all goes well, the Southern Cross will be off on the last long flight for us, says Kingsford-Smith in his own story. We hope to put her across the continent in thirty hours. For speed this will be no record, but somehow I think it will be a fitting climax to a great career for the old ship. We have had a good .time, and we wish we might - stay longer. Our motors have flown eight hundred hours, approximately 80,000 miles, and are still good. The engineers and builders wanted me to install new engines for the trans-Atlantic flight, but I refused because of my confidence in these. I would have been astonished if any one of them had failed me over the ocean or at any other time of their history. They just keep turning over, and I expect it of them. A few years ago one was not able to count on the most carefully made motor to do what these have done, and others are doing every day on the air lines of the world. Without being boastful, I think I can say that the utilisation of the radio equipment in navigation on board our ’plane has had something of a pioneering value. It served to bring the attention of the world to the magnificent work going on quietly in the laboratories of the world. These things to mv nind are evidence that man is going to span the ocean in heavier-than-air craft as regularly as he now crosses the continent by night and day in expresses. I am going to dare to play the role of a prophet. It is a very foolish thing perhaps for an aviator to do. However, if we have not learned something of value for commerce, then the flights of the Southern Cross will have been a lot of energy thrown away, a lot of money spent, and needless risk of lives. But I am certain that the engines and instruments of the Southern Cross have contributed to the advance of aviation. I believe that commercial transport, which is just around the corner, will be an established thing, possibly within a decade. Give us a multi-motored ’plane of 140 miles an hour cruising speed, that will carry a ton of paying load, with four thousand miles cruising radius, equipped with the instruments and radio that we have to-day, teach its pilots above all things to fly blind for hours at a time—give us these things, and we can fly against head winds, through fogs or storms, and carry a paying load across the Atlantic or the Pacific. Such aa ’plane is certainly not far away. Some day when it becomes a regular routine to fly heavier than air machines across the Atlantic the log of the flight down to the/ most minute detail will be recorded minute by minute. We could not do that on this flight! Such log as we have is pretty sketchy, as nothing like an orderly record of the journey was written down, nor does it remain in our minds. Some things stand out more than others to us, and these are the important items. In telling them to others and in writing them for lay readers there is, perhaps, a danger of frequent monotonous repetition. However, I feel their important to avi-

a tion in general and to all the worldfor all the world is taking to the air—is so great that I am going to risk being a bore and return to my two favourite themes in flying, particularly in trans-continental flying, radio and blind pilotage. I shall try to reconstruct for my readers the mechanics of radio navigation as the crew of the Southern Cross used it, and some of the difficulties that Stannage and Saul had to meet. The speed and accuracy that they had to attain can be imagined when one considers all the factors in their problem—a ’plane moving at 90 to 100 miles an hour, ships from which they obtained their bearings moving ten to eighteen knots, faster or slower, on a particular route. Thus there was no opportunity to go over the bearings to correct them. Those boys in the “ back room” had to be right the first time and all the time. It is not yet clear to me how we came to. deviate s.q far as we approached Newfoundland. It was certainly awkward. For three or four hours it was all blind flying, and this condition, if a pilot keeps it up long enough, is not conducive to accurate piloting. I am inclined to believe that the old Atlantic is more uncomfortable for flying than the Pacific. I believe that it is possible that Nungesser and Coli, HinchcliSe and others got almost to Newfoundland, then, coming against the magnetic variations when tired, flew in circles and went down or wandered off up into the wilds of Labrador. There was no radio to straighten them out and set them on the way again. There are several other points in connection with the flight and the whole flight round from Oakland that I would like to say something about, particularly in reference to air transport over water. These I will take up in my next article. While I was in England casting about for a radio operator one day Stannage walked into my club. I knew his ability of old. He was the radio man aboard the rescue ’plane which came after us when we were lost in Australia. His resourcefulness, courage, knowledge and speed made him the man for the job. We chatted for a while, and he said: “You don’t happen to be looking for an operator to fly the Atlantic, do you?” I signed him on then and there. KINGSFORD-SMITH TALKS TO HIS HOMELAND. NEW YORK, June 28. To-day Kingsford-Smith had a more or less lengthy telephonic radio conversation with Miss Powell, in Melbourne. Transmission, except for a brief period, was quite clear. The aviator again denied that he intends to fly back to England. He assured his fiancee that he will sell the Southern Cross, “so the September date still holds good.” The aviator also held a two-way conversation with Sydney, which was successfully broadcast over the national system of radio. “ Hello, mother,” he said. “ I hope you won’t fly any more oceans.” Kingsford-Smith: “ I can’t. There aren’t any more to fly, but I’ll have to give it up anyway.” “Are you well?” ‘‘ Oli lord, yes. Your baby boy is alive and still kicking. I suppose when I get back you’ll get me by the ears and give me a good spanking for being away so long.” Speaking to Mr C. T. P. Ulm, Kings-ford-Smith said : “ The trans-Atlantic flight is the hardest I ever made.”