AUSTRALIA TO NEW ZEALAND BY AIR.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3684, 30 August 1927, Page 2

AUSTRALIA TO NEW ZEALAND BY AIR.

QUEENSLANDER TO ATTEMPT FLIGHT. Auckland, Last Night. Lieut. K. Morton Frewen, a young Queensland aviator, will be the first to attempt a flight across the Tasman Sea. Early last week he flew from Brisbane to Sydney on the first stage of the flight that will end, he hopes, at the Bluff. The aeroplane which is now at the Mascot aerodrome, Sydney, is being fitted with extra petrol tanks for the great dash across the ocean. This will take at least another month. He will then leave for Hobart, probably calling at Melbourne on the way. From Hobart, Lieut. Frewen will fly to the Bluff. He estimates that this portion of his journey will occupy 13 hours of continuous flying. He will place his entire trust in the reliability of his aeroplane and engine while the machine is over the sea. No set time has been fixed for bis departure from Hobart, and this will depend absolutely on favourable weather. But it is Lieut. Frewen’s object to begin it as soon as possible. Lieutenant Frewen is 24 years of age. A spectacular feature of the plans is that Lieut. Frewen proposes to leave Hobart at night in , order to land at the Bluff early next "A; morning. Interest in the proposal for a trans-Tasman flight is stimulated by the report that 20 cases of petrol are being despatched to Norfolk Island on the “Hinemoa” on September 13, by an Auckland firm. Alternative non-stop and stage flight routes between the two countries have been suggested, but the only tangible project given publicity to date has been that of Lieut. Frewen’s direct flight from Hobart to the Bluff. It is suggested that another aviator may secretly be making preparations for an attempt to cross the Tasman.