STARTING TO-DAY.

Wairarapa Age, 5 October 1936, Page 5

STARTING TO-DAY.

MISS JEAN BATTEN’S FLIGHT TO NEW ZEALAND. DEPARTURE TO BE MADE FROM HATFIELD. HOPES OF BREAKING RECORD. LONDON, October 2. Miss Jean Batten, the New Zealand aviatrix, will probably leave at dawn next Monday from Hatfield Aerodrome to attempt a record flight to New Zealand. Two extra petrol tanks which have been installed in her Percival Gull machine will give a range of well over 1300 miles. Miss Batten will carry a letter from the New Zealand High Commissioner, Mr. W. J. Jordan, for the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage, which she hopes will constitute the quickest delivery on record. It will be the longest Empire flight. The aviatrix will make her halt at Sydney as short as possible. “I hope to break my record of 14 days 2 hours in 1934,” Miss Batten informed the Australian Associated Press agency. “I shall follow the same route, and use the same machine in which I flew to South America. It is just a year old, but is running as sweetly as ever. I am looking forward to seeing my home country again. You don’t know how much I long for a glimpse of the New Zealand countryside and the faces I know. It will be a happy moment.” She confessed that preparations for the trip imposed an immense strain, especially the fuel arrangements. She was likely to be charged 6s a gallon for petrol in Italy. She plans to stay a short time in Sydney for overhaul of the machine, before taking off for New Plymouth, from where she hopes to go on to Auckland. Conspicuously painted on the rudder of the aeroplane is a large New Zealand flag. Since the Atlantic hop the aeroplane has also been fitted with a self-starter. Mrs. Batten plans to follow by steamer a few weeks after seeing her daughter take off. Miss Jean Batten has been awarded the Johnston Memorial Silver Plaque by the Guild of Air Pilots and Navigators of the Empire, in recognition of her Eighth Atlantic hop. (Miss Jean Batten flew the South Atlantic in November last year, using the same machine as she will employ for her coming attempt. It has a range of 2400 miles and a cruising speed of 150 miles an hour. Her time for that flight was 13 hours 15 minutes. Her flight from England to Australia, made after several failures, one of which occurred at Karachi, and another near Rome, was completed in May, 1934. It took 15 days and bettered Miss Amy Johnson’s time of 191 days. The machine in which this flight of Miss Batten was made was five years old, with a cruising speed of 80 miles an hour, and a range in still air of 1100 miles).