A GLIDER’S FEAT

Hokitika Guardian, 22 June 1931, Page 4

A GLIDER’S FEAT

THE CHANNEL TWICE GROSSED(Unitea Press Association—By Electric ATelegraph.—Copyright.; LONDON, June 21. A German named Kronfield, has •won the JJa.jy .uafi s thousand pounds'-pri-e ior g..u.ng across the English Channel. Five p lots, of whom three were 'British, waited all day iong to make the attempt. The weather conditions prevented a start until the evening.

Kronfield completed a boreturn flight; « over the Channel at dusk, lie used a. Ibnie glider with a ninety-eight foot span, it being the bigg-st in' me world,, with a weight of six hundred pounds. ( As he loomed up in the sky, Kronfi.ld resembled an eagle. Escorted by an aeroplane, he glided across the Channel, and he. at Swingate near Dover after a three quarters of an hour flight. The German reascended again an. hour later, and he recrossed the Channel safely. The Australian named Krause, three times attempted to glide over the Channel. Twice he reached a height • of sewn' thousand feet, but his glider broke loose from its plane before it was sufficiently high to enable the at-' tempt to be- made, and it was finally' abandoned, Kt'oitfleld’s return to France was a plucky one, because by the time that lie took off and was towed up to a height of ten thousand feet and released it was dark, He landed at St, Inglevert in France. ,

On landing in France Kronfield said: “I am happy to be the first tomake the double crossing. My glide from England was to the French coast accompanied in twenty minutes. I lost myself half way across the Channel bn ■the way to England, owing to bad clouds, and I thought that it might end in a Channel swim instead of a glide.”

FIRST GLIDER GROSSING. MADE BY ENGLISHMAN. LON,DO'f, Juno 21. While six pilots, including the German record ! holder, Kronfield, were waiting at Boulogne in readiness for their attempt to win the Daily Mail’s £IOOO for the first cross channel and return flight in a glider in one day, or £SCiO for a one way flight, an Englishman named Lissant Beardmore arrived in a glider unexpectedly at the Stinglevert Aerodrome. He said he left Lympne escorted by two planes, one of which towed him until he reached 11,000 feet, when Beardmore loosed the rope, and glided down and crossed the channel. He en'oyed a gooCl journey aiid says He is proud of the fact that an Englishman was the first to accomplish the feat, .. , ~ The “Daily Express" organised Beard* more’s flight.