FIRST BUSINESS FLIGHT ACROSS THE ATLANTIC.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19269, 5 January 1931, Page 5

FIRST BUSINESS FLIGHT ACROSS THE ATLANTIC.

JOURNEY TO EUROPE BEGINS IN AMERICA. (United Press Assn.—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) NEW YORK, January 3. Airs Beryl - Hart, a red-haired widow, aged twenty-seven, one of the few women holding an unlimited air transport license, and Lieutenant William MacLaren, a former Navy flyer, took off to-day in the aeroplane Tradewind with a pay load for Paris. The flight is being undertaken to prove that ocean flying can be put on a paying- commercial basis. The route to Paris will be via Bermuda and the Azores. Lieutenant MacLaren is at the controls, but Airs Hart is expected to replace- him after the start and do the bulk of the piloting. Ihe plans are to stop for three hours at Hamilton (Bermuda), and it is hoped to reach Paris within fifty hours. The cargo is destined for stamp collectors along the way The plane is a black and white Bellanca monoplane, similar to the Columbm. It is fitted with a 300 h.p. Wright Whirlwind motor, and has floats. There is no radio installation. Ihe steamer Bermuda later reported the plane 370 miles south-east of Ambrose Light.