GALLANT FAILURE OF FIRST ATTEMPT TO FLY TASMAN

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 13, Issue 42, 17 January 1949, Page 5

GALLANT FAILURE OF FIRST ATTEMPT TO FLY TASMAN

In the long battle for the conquest of the aii’ there have been many failures and tragedies. In all parts of the world the attempt to remain aloft like the birds resulted in the loss- of. many lives. Among those who had to pay were two brave men, who disappeared into the hitherto unknown heavens above the Tasman Sea on January 10, 1928, never to be seen again, in their gallant but vain attempt to fly from Australia to New Zealand. • Captain George Hood and Lieutenant J. R. Moncrieff were the two aviators. They realised before they took off that the risks were great in those very early days of long distance flying. World’s Best Plane Their Ryan high-wing monoplane was the best machine in the world, by proof of Lindbergh’s triumph across the Atlantic, but the weather was a total mystery. While they waited in Sydney the meteorologists guessed their very best. They knew, fairly well, what surface conditions were, but at flying height—who would know? So, 21 years ago from last Monday, the guesses on both sides of the Tasman were that Hood and Moncrieff and their Ryan would get through, showing the way for mail —even, perhaps, passenger services. They left Australia. What happened on their lonely flight, where they finally ended up, no living man will ever know. They vanished completely. The interest created in the flight was tremendous in Wellington, which was the proposed destination. Public Vigil A great crowd rushed by train, car, gig, push cycle (there were not so many buses then) to Trentham, and waited full of faith a long afternoon and evening. As night fell faith changed to hope, and while the vigil was kept up the hundreds who saw the full night out to a realisation that the first attempt had failed. But it was left for another Australian to be the first to cross the Tasman a few months later. Since the day of George Hood and Scotty Moncrieff we have advanced considerably until now the transTasman flight can be done in under four and a half hours. But even so their memory stays wondrous green. They were good triers.