The Wanganui Chronicle THURSDAY, JULY 5, 1928. FLIGHT ACROSS THE TASMAN

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 20190, 5 July 1928, Page 6

The Wanganui Chronicle THURSDAY, JULY 5, 1928. FLIGHT ACROSS THE TASMAN

JT IS NOW definitely stated that Captain Kingsford-Smith and Lieutenant Ulm, heroes of the Trans-Paeifie flight, will fly the Tasman, “weather permitting,” by the end of the present month. By comparison with their adventure from America to Australia, the crossing from the Commonwealth to New Zealand does not appear a formidable feat for airmen of the calibre of these Australians; but there is yet.fresh in the minds of New Zealanders the melancholy fate of two of their own countrymen—Captain Hood and Lieutenant Moncriefif—who perished midway on just such a journey, vanishing utterly from sight and hearing. Circumstances then and now, however, are greatly different. After the disappearance of Hood and Moncrieff, it was made apparent that they had set off contrary to expert advice, and ill-equipped for such, a journey, in a one-engined vehicle deficient in tested instruments, and probably with insufficient fuel. They were, it appeared, more courageous than cautious, and, knowingly they took the hazard. Smith and Ulm will leave nothing to chance. They have a triple-engined ’plane, and the failure of one engine will not affect their safety; they have the ocean-flying experience which the New Zealand airmen lacked; and their machine is fit to weather any storm, and'is equipped with the very latest adjuncts to aerial navigation. There can be spells of extremely stormy weather between Australia and New Zealand, but it will require the most desperately hostile elements seriously to affect the Southern Cross. Though the credit of being first to fly the Tasman has been denied a New Zealander, owing to the tragic failure of the Hood-Moncrieff endeavour, none will grudge it to the Australians.