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Hokitika Guardian, 10 February 1927, Page 2

Tjte Inspection of Service and Commercial Aircraft which took place on the 23rd. October, at the Air Port of London, Croydon, provided plenty of food for reflection, says an English paper. The Prime Ministers of the Dominions were enabled to insneet all the latest developments in heavTer-than-air commercial machines, and to fake mental notes of what the Royal Air Force has achieved here in Great Britain in the way of air drill as

evidenced by some of the afternoon’s events Pcrliana the most interesting item in a full proramine was the manoeuvring of a Royal Air Force Flying Squadron of “Grebe” Single-Seater Fighters controlled by means of RadioTelephony In close wedge formation or in line each movement was carried out with the utmost precision. No time for thought, but automatically every word of command was meticulously obeyed. So accustomed are wc becoming to those miraculous executions of Air-drill that the. skill of the trained pilots may almost escape appreciation, hut nevertheless such ability demands wholesale admiration. Another most interesting item was a series of passenger (lights in some of the new giant air-liners. Thanks to the arrangements of tlic Government Hospitality Department, the writer experienced his first trip by air as the de Haviland WHO ascending with 2d passengers aboard. As we circled over the country surrounding the aerodrome in comfort equivalent to that experienced in a railway train or Atlantic liner, such explots as the London-Aranches-ter flight, the first crossing: of the Channel, the flight over the Atlantic, and the pioneer voyage to Australia by air led on to thoughts upon the recent achievements of Sir Alan Cobh am ; in fact a mental panorama was set in motion unfolding the pioneer deeds of British living men. and others for progress in air-shin development has not- reached such an advanced stage beany means, hut there is every reason to hope that the Representatives of the Dominions and the Colonies attending future Imperial Conferences »ill he able to conduct an exhaustive inspection. of liehter-than-rir craft as they were on this occasion able to do in the case of aeroplanes constructed for work upon Empire Air Routes