FIRST AIR MAIL SAFE.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20234, 19 February 1934, Page 1

FIRST AIR MAIL SAFE.

Mr Ulm Crosses Tasman Safely. SYDNEY, February 17. Fourteen hours and ten minutes after taking off from Muriwai Beach, Mr C. T. P. Ulm landed his aeroplane Faith in Australia at Mascot Aerodrome, at 6.15 p.m. The aeroplane was seen approaching at a low altitude, and workmen, who had been preparing flares in case a landing had to be made in the darkness, rushed to the centre of the aerodrome and (sheered. Mr Ulm wasted no time in circling the aerodrome, but headed the machine into the wind and made a neat landing. He did not stop the engines until the machine was housed in the hangar. Then, after greeting his wife, he superintended the unloading of the mails. The navigator, Mr G. U. Allen, said the trip w*as made mostly through rain but it had caused no trouble of any kind. The radio equipment had been out of action all the way owing to a defect in a condenser. Mr Ulm predicted that within two vears regular commercial services would be inaugurated between Australia and New Zealand. Forty thousand letters, aggregating 600!b at sixpence per letter, comprised the first official air mail from New Zealand to Australia.