AIRMEN SAFE

Hokitika Guardian, 28 May 1929, Page 6

AIRMEN SAFE

.OWEN HURT. THEY LEAVE FOR DARWIN. (Australian Press Association) SYDNEY, May 27. Advice lias-been received that the lighthouse steamer Kyogle.has ahead’, arrived at Cope Don, and that Aloir ancl Owen were due to leave on board her for Darwin at noon to-day. Tlie Kyogle has radioed that Owen is suffering from internal injuries. She adds that the aeroplane is wrecked, but the engines will be sal vaged. admiration FOR DRAIN. The one' topic of conversation in Australia to-day is the discovery of the missing aviators, Moir and Owen and Pilot Brain’s uncanny instinct of knowing just where to look when engaged in missions such as these. Pilot Brain expressed the opinion last week, when in Sydney that ho was confident that Moir and Owen had crossed the Timor Sea, and tnat they were marooned on some remote spot on the Australian coast'. A fund is now being raised to enable the public express their pride and gratitude to . Pilot Brain. * LESSONS TO BE LEARNED. <r LONDON,- May: 2C. “The Times” says:—-Crave anxietv for Moir and Owen’has boon happily dispelled. The only-.clear le,ssop fi-onp, their adventure is the old lesson -tin]L the machines for long advcnturmi-, flights; should .carry • ; wireless.; ! should-also be provisioned and equip ped to meet emergencies. That les’rri has been terribly taught by the ■•it o "' of the “Southern Cross” and tragic ally told hv the story of the ‘'Kookaburra.” Wireless also appears to be indispensable for lighthouses, such as that at Cape Don. MRS MOTR INTERVIEWED. SYDNEY. Mav 27. Mrs Moir and her daughter were interviewed to-dav. They dccarod - — “We are the happiest family in the -world, now that Jim has-been found alive and well; •' We had a fooling that both wore safe, and never lost ottr faith in the efforts of the gallant men who went to search ' 1)1 them.” * ' ■ • r • The naval officers who had vi-Mcd the lighthouse at Cape Don agree find the worst and ready to chop the tanks adrift immediately we hit the water, C/wen had an axe and tools ready to make-a raft. We thought we could at - least survive for several days as we had plenty of rations. The engine was running spasmodically and just gave enough power lor us to keep in the air. • . After struggling in this, manner we sighted Cape Don. As it was impossible to last much longer, we headed for the lighthouse. Owen fired Verey ligiits and the staff at the lighthouse realised our predicament and lighted Several fires; These •cheered: us and we knew the. men wou'd come to our assistance if we did alight in the water. Little did we know that they d’d not even 1 have a canoe and. that the waters were infested with - sharks and crocodiles. With tlie aid of the fires we picked out a small clearing, shut off tlie pel rol and pancaked the machine into the clearing. We were both thrown clear of the machine into a crop of small mangrove stumps. Owen was hurt internally and was unable to move. The lighthouse people rendered overassistance possible. The fact that wo did not reach Darwin was a terrib'e disappointment to us. The Kyogle is expected at Darw’n early in the morning. Pilot Brain is standing by in cas" urgent assistance is needed. He will fly Moir and Owen to .Brisbane if .required. MOift’S STORY. HOW THE FLY ENDED. OWEN INJURED. ENGINE CAUSES TROUBLE. (Received this day at 9.2 d a.m.) SYDNEY, May '2B. Jn a message from the steamer Kyogle, Moir briefly tells tlie story ol the flight from Bima to Cape Don. All went well until about Lot) miles from Darwin, when a slight roughness in tlie engine became evident. Later it started to miss badly. Wo had lifebeits oil and as we were losing height badly, were prepared for tlie climate here is of the worst, postered as it is by all kinds of insects. Tlie families there grow ‘ill I heir own vegetables, but they eea:! extremely lonely lives. Commenting upon the desiru!>i : i'.y ol equipping the lighthouses with 'tireless, the Customs officers say 'hat linens t is prohibitive, as the lighthouse keepers do not possess the reqii's'te technical knowledge to keep iJi-jm in order, and it would require trained men at each of tlie sixty-th* v main lights. This would aggregate £39 060 yearly for salaries.

men and machine. Flying-Oniciws .Tamos Moir ami TT.-ir-old Owen, of the Australian Flying

Corps, accompanied Captain Fi Hurley on hisiattempt to make a record flight from Australia to England. However, that flight came to grief at Athens in Greece, and tlie airmen went on to England. Alter .considerable negotiation, they obtained from Vickers, Ltd., tho Vickers Vellore machine in which they have just landed near Darwin.

Their route to Australia was as follows :—Rome, -Malta, Benghazi, Cairo, Ramleli, Baghdad, Basra, Bushiro, Builder Abbali, Karachi, Agra, Calcutta, Akyab, Bangkok, Singura, Singapore, Batavia, Suurabaya, Bima, and Darwin. Oil and petrol supplies had been laid down at the places named, but landings' would not necessarily be effected at each place. The route had teen thus chosen because the V ickers Vellore ’plane, which is definitely the biggest machine which lias ever attempted to fly to Australia, required careful handling. Despite its size, its speed was not actually fast, its cruising speed being eighty to eighty-live miles per hour, as it was built to lilt and carry heavy loads. ,-vt the beginning of March they lelt England, and negotiated Europe and Malta .successfully, though the latter stages were slow owing to severe head winds, which made it difficult to attain the speed for which tlie \ ickers \ ellore was designed Nevertheless, the machine behaved splendidly, despite its handicap. The- \ ellore was most comfortable, and the engine van perfectly throughout. Unfortunately, they had to make a forced, landing at. -Mersa Matruh, en‘route io Ramleh. The men were not- injured, but the machine was damaged. The. landing was due to engine trouble, shortly after setting out op the projected two thousand miles noip.s'top flight from Benghazi. Slight damage was done to one wingtip and also to the mider-earriagc. A month passed before they could get a new wing, but on May 1 a stare, was made on the remainder of the trip. Through Asia Minor and India very heavy rain was encountered, that caused delays and damaged tlie propeller to such an extent that another had to he fitted. Eventually,' they arrived at Bima, in the Alayal Archipelago, on May Hi, and took off lor the final and longest hop, Bima-Darwin, a distance of nine hundred miles, on the night ol A lay I. I util Captain Brain found them on Sunday, they had not been seen or heard of since they passed ivoepang at the southern end of Lhe island of Timor, at about noon, on .May 18. Practically all hope of find-, fling them had.been given up. Technically, flic; machine is regarded one of the. most interesting aircraft produced in recent times., The wingspan is seventy-six feet, the length fifty-one feet, and the height over all twenty feet. It weighs .4550. pounds, and carries a load of 4950 pounds, making a total weight, fully loaded of P.jOI) pounds. The : e.’ojmuio was Imilt as a frcight-curryi.!,;; machine and was purchased by tlie Air Ministry. Vickers are fitting a new Armstrong? Siddeley Jaguar engine of 460 horsepower. This is the same as the type about to- be introduced by Imperial Airways on tlie l.ondon-Paris route, and is a considerable improvement on the type used by Sir Alan Cobliam on his Australian flight. It has a geared propeller permitting the latter to run more slowly than the engine. lhe machine lias a speed , in excess ol a hundred. miles an hour at a height ol live thousand feet, lhe crr.isng speed is eighty to eighty-live mill’s per hour, am! the cousmr.plon < f fuel is approximately twenty gallons per hour.