A QUICK TRIP

Waipa Post, Volume 42, Issue 3304, 2 June 1931, Page 2

A QUICK TRIP

TO ENGLAND IN SIX AND A HALF DAYS. Mr J. A. Mollison, a well known pilot of the Australian National Airways, is planning a flight from Australia to England. He expects to leave Derby, Western Australia, on 30th May in a De Haviland plane fitted with a 115 Gipsy No. 2 engine. He considers that he will be able to make the flight in 61 days. The Vacuum Oil Company is laying down supplies of Plume motor spirit all along the route. The machine will carry fuel sufficient for 18 hours flying at 100’m.p.h. Mr Mollison is 26 years of age and is regarded as having had the most varied flying experience of Australian pilots. He has always had the ambition to break the England-Australia air record, and believes this can be done by night flying. '

He served five years in the Royal Air Force, flying various types of planes, and was for one year a R.A.F. instructor. In 1926 he served as test pilot in India. Later he went to the South of France, and piloted a seaplane for a private air company between Nice and Corsica. Later he dedeicd to come to Australia and on arrival here was appointed chief instructor for the S.A. Aero Club, which position he held for a year. He then joined the Eyre Peninsula Airways in South Australia, and later left that concern to join Australian National iArways.

During the twelve months he has been with Australian Airways he has flown on all routes between Sydney and Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne and Melbourne and Tasmania. Mr Mollison is a quiet, unassuming man, with determination and doggedness. While a member of the Royal Air Force he was regarded a§ a boxer of unusual merit.

The plane in which he will make his attempt is a D.H. 60 wooden fuselage moth in which a new Gipsy 11 engine is being installed. The petrol tanks are fitted exactly in the front cockpit, using up all available space. The plane is being entirely reconditioned, stream lining is being carried out under the supervision of Mr Hewitt, chief engineer of Australian National Airways, and it is being especially strengthened to hold extra tankage. It is being sprayed with a special black laquer, which it is claimed reduces the skin friction considerably as compared with the usual material employed for this work. The route will be as follows:

First day: Derby to Batavia, with Sourabaya as emergency refuelling point.

Second day: Batavia to Rangoon, with Alor Star emergency refuelling point. Third day: Rangoon to Jhansi. Fourth day: Jhansi to Bandar Abbas, with Karachi and Owadar emergency refuelling points. Fifth day: Bandar Abbas to Aleppo, with Bushire emergency refuelling point. Sixth day: Aleppo to Brindisi, with Athens emergency refuelling point. Seventh day: Croydon, with Rome emergency refuelling point. When he reaches London he will have his engine overhauled and refitted, and will continue on the flight back to Australia.