BY AIR TO AUSTRALIA

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 55, 2 September 1926, Page 8

BY AIR TO AUSTRALIA

■ -♦ . AN ATTEMPT TO BE MADE DATE FOR FLIGHT FIXED. (By Tolegraph.—Press Association.) AUCKLAND, Ist September. Captain Robert Robertson, late of the Australian Air Force, who is now a resident of Auckland, announces that he is preparing to make-a seaplane flight from Auckland to Australia. He states that he has for some time been working on the scheme, and studying the air route and weather conditions. The date of the attempted flight will be 23rd December next.. He had found that in that period of the year the weather conditions will be most favourable.' Captain Robertson will use a De Haviland 450 h.p. convertible machine, which will be specially constructed for the night. An extra petrol tank' is to be fitted, making.it possible to carry 125 gallons of benzine. The seaplane will accommodate two passengers, besides the,captain. It is intended to take an assistant ■ pilot and a third person. -It is estimated that the flight will occupy 12 to 13% hours, at an average speed of 100 miles an hour. The tcike-ofn will be from Hobsonville, and the route will be directly across the Tasman Sea, with the intention of landing at La Perouse, Botany Bay, on the east coast of Australia. The flight will be made under the New Zealand flag. Captaiu Robertson states that the venture will be a purely private one. The aid of no Government is being invoked. The machine to be used in the flight will arrive in Auckland within three weeks, when Captain Robertson will get into form preparatory to the first attempt to fly to Australia.