The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. MONDAY, MAY 26, 1930. MISS JOHNSON’S VICTORY

Southland Times, Issue 21092, 26 May 1930, Page 6

The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. MONDAY, MAY 26, 1930. MISS JOHNSON’S VICTORY

Apart from the fact that she has achieved fame aS the first woman to accomplish, a long-distance flight single-handed, Miss Amy Johnson has shown that the long, trying journey from Britain to Australia can be undertaken with very little preparation in flying work. Captain Chichester, the New Zealander who was successful, was better equipped for the trial, and Bert Hinkler, of course, was an experienced airman before he demonstrated the fact that the voyage Jialf-way round the world could be done at a reasonably low cost, while Cobham was a veteran of the air when he completed the round trip. The most extraordinary feature of Miss Johnson’s achievement is that she was practically a novice when she set out alone in her light machine. Prior to her departure she had been in the air as a pilot only a few hours longer than the time specified as the minimum for a license, and her longest flight had been from London to Hull. Her knowledge of map-reading must have been scanty, and to this must be added the fact that she was flying over a route of which she knew practically nothing. For the most part the Britain-to-Australia flight follows a course that keeps a floor of land in sight, but there are one or two wide stretches of water to be crossed, and the fuel margin of her machine was not large enough to permit of much deviation from the straight line. Unfortunately, some slight mishaps, some misadventures due to lack of air experience, prevented her from bettering or equalling Hinkler’s time, but she was near enough to it to make her achievement as effective as his. She has beaten the schedule of some of her male rivals, but apart from this she has shown that even in the hands of a comparative novice, the modern aeroplane is reliable enough to make long flights under varying conditions reasonably safe. She took nineteen days for the voyage, against Hinkler’s fifteen days and a half, and so would have beaten a liner which left London at the same time by a comfortable margin. Courage and determination were demanded by this lone-handed flight, and it is significant that in the final stages she admitted that the strain was almost too much. Miss Johnson will be numbered among the great pioneers of flying. Looking back, one recalls the tremendous outburst of applause that’ followed Lindbergh’s single-handed crossing of the Atlantic, and the skill with which his fame has been kept alive by his countrymen, but if Lindbergh deserved the cheers' accorded him, what does this young woman deserve? His was an achievement of great daring, but it was a case of driving straight to a point on a course set from the American flying field. Miss Johnson’s hops were shorter, but each one of them offered problems comparable with the one Lindbergh solved. The Southern Cross, a big machine manned by a skilled crew, showed that with the aid of wireless communications an aeroplane could fly' across vast stretches of ocean and pick up a small island with almost as much certainty as a ship navigating the waters. Miss Johnson was alone in the air. When she left the soil she had to rely on dead reckoning, and it was only when she was flying across the difficult last stages that she seemed to be troubled by uncertainty about her landing marks. Women have shown that they do not lack courage in flying. In America they have challenged seriously-the ceiling established by the best male flyers, but those feats ,after all, demand persistent drive and endurance. Here, a young woman has demonstrated her capacity to overcome the difficulties of air navigation, and to stand up to the tremendous strain of a nineteen days’ flight. Something must be said, too, of the permanent organization which makes such a lone-handed flight possible. It is an arresting fact that with no more preparation than a few cablegrams, an aeroplane can fly from post to post round half the world and not want for fuel or equipment to deal with minor repairs. Viewed from any angle, Miss Johnson’s arrival at Darwin completes a remarkable performance, the significance of

which is heightened by her youth, her sex, and the slenderness of her previous experience of flying.