RECORD SET.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXIV, Issue 935, 4 December 1933, Page 9

RECORD SET.

England to Australia in Less Than Seven Days. DIFFICULTIES OVERCOME. Just after midnight on October 19, Mr Charles Ulm and two companions stepped out of the Faith in Australia after landing on a flare-lit field at Derby, completing a flight from England in the record time of 6 days 17 hours 56 minutes, b-ating by 10 hours 51 minutes the previous record which Sir Charles Kingsford Smith had put up in a solo flight. Mr Ulm's co-pilots were Messrs G. U. Allan and P. G. Taylor. Mr Ulm had so much bad luck before he accomplished this flight that lie earned for himself the soubriquet of Ulm the Unlucky.” However, misfortunes did not daunt him, and on Thursday, October 12, at 10.30 p.m., he left the Harmondsworth Aerodrome, England, in an effort to get to Australia in under six days. The 1670 miles to Athens took only one hop, and a few hours after landing, on October 13, he set off for Bagdad, arriving soon after noon the next day, while the afternoon of October 15 saw the machine safely landed at Karachi. It was then that Mr Ulm ran into a little of his proverbial bad luck. After only two and a half hours on the ground he took off for Calcutta, which he intended making without a stop, but heavy rain and head winds forced him to make a landing at Gaya, in Bengal, and he did not land in Calcutta till midday on October 16. Within twenty minutes of his arrival the machine was wheeled out to take the air again, but the central engine failed, and the repairs cost nearly a whole day, the departure for Akyab being delayed till the morning of October 17. He reached Akyab about midday, and was off again in about four hours, reaching Alor Star just as the sun rose on the morning of October 18, the Wednesday. After refuelling the Faith in Australia took the air again, and after a stop at Singapore, Sourabaya was reached on the morning of October li). At Sourabaya a soft landing ground held up the plane’s departure for five hours, and twice efforts to get the machine off the ground failed. Ulm landed on Australian ground at Derby, Western Australia, a few minutes after midnight. After the flight, Mr Ulm stated that blind flying through violent storms was the only thing that allowed him to break the record, while twenty-four hours’ delay on the rain-sodden field at Calcutta spoiled the chance of achieving the object of reaching Australia in less than six days. It is interesting to note that nearly every, published account of the flight at the time reported that Mr. Ulm was accompanied by three companions, and the name of Mr John Edwards, of London, navigator, was always included. “ Flight,” the English periodical, insisted afterwards that Mr Edwards did not make the trip, and Ulm himself, in his story, said: “ I cannot pay too great a tribute to my companions. Allan and Taylor, throughout this rather hard-working flight.”