AUSTRALIAN FLIER DUE ON MONDAY

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 152, 17 September 1927, Page 9

AUSTRALIAN FLIER DUE ON MONDAY

BRISBANE TO AUCKLAND LANDING PLACE AT MANGERE LL going well, a flight from ' Brisbane to Auckland should be an accomplished fact early next week. Private enterprise will be responsible for tbe attempt which will be made by Flight-Lieutenant K. M. Frewen, a well-known Australian airman.

A prominent oil company has interested itself in the venture and arragements for fuel have already been completed. Norfolk Island, which is 820 miles from Brisbane, will be the fuel depot, and 20 cases of petrol which left Auckland on the Hinemoa on Thursday will be landed there to-morrow. Over the remaining stagq of the journey the aviator will cover a distance of 400 miles, making a total of 1,220 miles for the flight. The landing-place will he at Mangere, a site already having been selected by the local agents of the company.

Flight-Lieutenant Frewen intends flying alone, and it is estimated that the journey will take 12 hours. Owing to a slight deviation necessary to take in Norfolk Island, the route proposed is a little longer, the distance over a non-stop route being 1,162 miles.

The machine selected, “The Stormbird,” is a Bristol fighter and is equipped with a 300 h.p. SiddeleyPuma engine.

Although official opinion is opposed to the use of land machines for long ocean trips, it is not expected that any opposition will be raised.