GREAT OCEAN FLIGHTS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 3805, 14 June 1928, Page 1

GREAT OCEAN FLIGHTS.

HISTORY IN THE AIR. ATLANTIC AND PACIFIC. The romance of ocean ilights dates from July 25, 1909, when the English 'Channel, considered an insuperable obstacle in those early' days of aviation, was crossed for the first time by the famous French pioneer airman, Louis Bleriot. The news of his feat cre-

ated a sensation. The distance, 20 miles, was covered in 27 minutes a speed which was then held to bo well-nigh unbelieveable. It was after the war, however,

that transoceanic flights first became the goal of the air recordbreakers. The Atlantic for instance, has been crossed by airmen ten times. The first attempt was made in May, 1919, by Mr. Harry Hawker, who, with Commander Mackenzie Grieve, R.N., as navigator, was compelled to come down, after having flown over 1100 miles, a distance of 750 miles from the west coast of Ireland and was , picked up by a Danish steamer. In the same month the first successful flight was accomplished by tho United States Navy seaplane, NC4, with Lieutenant-Commander A. C. Read in command. This was not a direct flight, but was taken in stages—Newfoundland to* the Azores, the Azores to Lisbon, and Lisbon to Plymouth. In the same year, 1919, the first non-stop flight across the Atlantic was accomplished. Captain J. Aleock and Lieutenant Whitten Brown, flying a Vickers-Vimy machine, left the coast of Newfoundland, at 4.28 p.un (Greenwich mean time) on June 14 and landed at Clifton, in the west of Ireland, at 8.40 a.m. on June 15, having flown some 1900 miles. ATLANTIC CROSSINGS ACCOMPLISHED. Three years elapsed before the Atlantic was again flown. Then, in March, 1922, two Portuguese airmen, Commander Cabral and Commander Coutinho, started from Lisbon for Brazil, making stops at Canary Islands and Cape Verde Islands. They were compelled to make a forced landing at St. Paul’s Rocks, 500 miles from the Brazilian coast. Their seaplane was wrecked, as was also a second machine, but in a third seaplane they completed the journey and reached Pernambuco on June 6.

The next flight was by the Spanish airman, Comandante Franco, who, with two companions in a Dornier-Wal flying boat, flew 1500 miles from the Canary Islands to Fernando Noronha Islands, 200 miles from the mainland to South

America, and on to Pernambuco in January, 1926. The Marchese de 'Pinedo, in his flight round the Atlantic, flew in February last year in the Savoia 555 flying-boat from the Cape Verde Islands to Fernando Noronha Islands and on to Pernambuco. In the following month the Portuguese airmen, Lieuten-ant-Colonel Sarmento Beires, flew from the Bissagos Islands, Portuguese West Africa, to Fernando Noronha (1450 miles) and on to Brazil.

Colonel Charles Lindberg’s famous solo non-stop flight across the Atlantic occurred on May 2021, 1927. He left New York in a Ryan monoplane, with the same type of engines as those used in last week’s Pacific flight, at 8 a.m. and arrived at Paris at 10.30 pan. the following day, after a-flight of 334 hours. He covered a distance of 3639 miles. On June 4-6, 1927, Mr. Clarence Chamberlin, with Mr. Charles Levine as passenger (the first passenger to cross the Atlantic), flew from New York to Eislc-

ben, Germany, , a distance of 3923 miles, in 42*2 hours. In April, 1928, the Atlantic was again crossed, this time by the German aviators, Herr Koehl and Baron von Huehnefeldt, and Major J. C. Fitzmaurice, Commandant of the Irish Free State Air Force. PREVIOUS FLIGHTS OVER PACIFIC. The Pacific has proved an even more difficult proposition in longdistance flying than the Atlantic and the toll of life has been heavy. In June, 1927, Lieutenants Maitland and Hegenberger, of the United States Army, set out from San Francisco in a Fokker tri-motored monoplane, similar to that employed by Captain Kingsford Smith, and reached Hawaii in 23 hours.

The feat was repeated the next month by Smith and Bronte, their machine being wrecked at the moment of landing on Molokai Island. Then followed the Dole air race between San Francisco and Honolulu. Four machines entered for the contest but only two completed the journey. A third machine which went in search of the others

was never heard of again. Ten men and a girl lost their lives on this occasion.

flights in the Pacific were also accomplished by Squadron-Leader McLaren, who, in his attempt to fly round the world in 1924, flew by seaplane from island to island between Japan and Kamchatka until he was compelled by fogs to give up the effort at Nikolski in the Behring Sea. In May the same year three United States Army machines crossed the Behring Sea between Alaska and Japan and completed a flight round the world in September.

Other great flights which will be in the memory of the public include that of Mr. Bert Hinkler, who flew alone from England to Australia in 154 days, and that of the French airmen, iCostos and Lcbrix, who (lew from Toki, Japan, to Paris in a week. —Auckland Herald.