PIONEER FLIGHT.

Hokitika Guardian, 14 September 1926, Page 3

PIONEER FLIGHT.

MELBOURNE TO SAMOA

14,000 MILES JOURNEY

SYDNEY, Sept. 3

Long distance flights are the order of the day by representatives of nations in whose blood runs the spirit of adventure, and especially those to whom the vehicle of modern adventuring, the aeroplane, appeals with irresistible lure. Captain Alan Cobani’s (light to Australia lias quickened inteiest in aviation, and possibly it is partly duo to his influence that the Royal Australian Air Force proposes to embark on a notable pioneering flight. Arrangements have been completed for an arduous and spectacular flight of approximately 14,C0D miles, and covering the groups of islands-east ot New Guinea as far as Samoa. The pilot will be Group-Captain Erie Williams, chief of the Air Force, who will bo accompanied by a mechanic uith experience as a pilot, and a uiieless operator, who will also use a camera from the air. The machine to be used will be a De Haviland 50. fitted with floats and a Siddeley-Piuna engine ot 240 h.p. The proposal has the approval of the Prime Minister ( Mr Bruce), and it is expected that the (light "ill begin from Point Cook, near Melbourne. within the next ten or twelve days. THE ROUTE.

It is proposed that the route followed will be from Melbourne, tip the east coast of Australia to Tliursday lsland. thence round the south-east corner of New Guinea, and along the north-east coast ws far as Alatlang. From Madang, the machine will proceed round the southern coast ot New Britain to Rabaul. and thence to the Solomon Islands, Santa Cruz islands New Hebrides, New Caledonia, and Fiji From Fiji it is possible that the machine will visit the Friendly Islands and the Samoan Group. FLYING BASES. An official statement issued by the

Air (Board states that the suitability of tho Mandated Territory and the islands of the Southern Pacific for tho establishment of laeroplane and seaplane bases is at present little known, and the main object of tho flight will bo to reconnoitre these places from tho air, and obtain data as to the suitability of climatic conditions generally for flying operations. A large number of these islands and reel’s is as yet imperfectly charted, and it seems possible that at some future date it may he found desirous to employ aircraft for the purpose of amending existing charts and completing the hydrographic survey of the area. It is necessary, therefore, adds tho statement to study in advance the suitability of the area for flying operations of this kind, and the possibility of carring out such operations successfully It is hoped by means of photography to obtain permanent record of stretches of dlastlino of importance, which should prove a valuable addition to existing information concerning this area.

Tho flight is expected to occupy about two months. The machine will be fitted with ordinary Air Force wireless equipment, and- at no point of the proposed route is it thought that the machine will be out of wireless range. Tho return flight will be made over the same route as the outward. Although Norfolk Island and Lord Howe Island, possessions of the Commonwealth, appear to offer stages between New Caledonia and Sydney they are useless lor tho proposed flight, because they lack wireless stations. In flying across open ocean, an aviator is apt to be blown out of his course, unless lie has the aid of directional wireless. The route as mapped out is studded with wireless stations.