FLIGHT FROM AUSTRALIA TO N.Z.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 15978, 21 November 1919, Page 5

FLIGHT FROM AUSTRALIA TO N.Z.

A TWELVE HOURS’ TRIP. CONFIDENT AERONAUT. (Otago Times Correspondent.) SYDNEY? November 5. The possibilities of aeroplane flights between Australia and New Zealand were discussed with me yesterday by Captain Roy King, D.5.0., D.F.G., of Sydney.. Captain King is confident that flights to New Zealand are quite practicable, and says he is prepared to demonstrate that they are by making the flight himself before the end of the year if sufficient inducement is offered. It could be done in twelve hours, he says, with a modern machine, such as Captain Matthews is using (a Sopwith transport) on the flight from England to Australia. There are, he states, a number of machines capable of non-stop flights of over 1000 miles, and they could be used for the transport of mails and the carriage of from eight to tqn passengers per trip. They could be in wireless communication with both Australia and New Zealand the whole way cross. “If the New Zealand Government will only offer a substantial enough prize it will see me over there per aeroplane before the year is out,” he declared. Captain King has a distinguished record as an aeronaut. He was a flightcommander in the Fourth Australian Squadron, and among other notable achievements, brought down 26 German machines.