AIRFIELD INADEQUATE

Chronicle (Levin), 18 June 1947, Page 5

AIRFIELD INADEQUATE

Press Association

By Telegraph-

WELLINGTON, June 18.. Offlcers of the Civil AViation Branch of Air Department, commentipg pn the report that jthe Ajyiejican millionaire, Milton Rey-! nolds, is jfco spprisor. a . Pblai fiight : comineneing from ' Invercargill, state "that fhe aer.odr.ome is quite inadequate for the receptipn of such a plane with so huge a weight of fuel. The fo.ur" runways are north to south 2775 feet, north-east tp south-west 3000 feet, .eas-t jto west a075 feet and north-wesjt to spu^heast 3000 feet. Dakotas are permijtted to land only in'good weather as the surface is greasy after rain. The nearest airfield tp Invercargill with runways adequate for the cake-off was at Te Puirita, 2.0 miles south of Wigram, a war project airfield whieh had landing strips of 7200 feet but was neyer used, and roday was again divided irito grazing paddocks.

A cable from New York stated that Mr. R.eynolds had announced that he would sponsor a round-the-world fiight oyer the North and South Pole. It was proposed to take un from Invercargill about August 2 and fiy 6000 miies over the South Pole and Palmer's Peninsular to Argentina. The Ass'ociated Press said Mr. Reynolds described the fiight as purely scientifiLc. Ten or 12 scienfcists would comprise the party. The rcute would be from Washington to Greenland, over the North Pole tb Yakutuk, in Siberia, thence to invercargill, across the South Pole to Argentina, Santiago, Balboa, Panama Ganal Zone, and back to Washington. Mr.' Reynolds estimates the total mileage as 25,000, and the time about 110 hours.