THE LAST FLIGHT

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 129, 2 June 1937, Page 4

THE LAST FLIGHT

The last page of a colourful story; of the development of aviation in Au> tralia was turned recently, when Victoria's oldest aeroplane made its last flight. Lashed to the undercarriage was a pedal bicycle, for the convenience of the pilot, should he make a forced landing remote from his base. As the old machine swooped over the swamps and rubbish tips, two of the world's most modern machines spared many feet above it. The veteran machine—a Morris Farman biplanetook 'off on its last flight from a vacant allotment of land at- Fishermen's Bend. The plane was built in Australia in 1914, arid;'With-,several others of the same type, was used in training Air Force pilots at Point Cook. It was the first type of training machine in Australia fitted with dual controls: It was built • on the' i'pusher" principle (with the.propeller behind the wings). During the biplane's/flight two other planes flew 1000 ft overhead. One was the giant Diesel-engined Junkers, the \ first plane of that type seen iniAustralia, and the other was the streamlined Douglas airliner Loongana, driving in from Hobart at nearly 200 milei an hour. The scene told of the whola amazing development of aviation within the last twenty-five years. After th« flight the plane was dismantled-.