NO SIGN OF FLIERS

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 205, 18 November 1927, Page 9

NO SIGN OF FLIERS

NON-STOP TRIP TO INDIA THICK WEATHER REPORTED By Cable. —Press Association. — Copyright. LONDON, Thursday, VO news of any kind has been ' received in England of Captain R. H. Mclntosh and Mr. Bert Hinkler since they left the Upavon airdrome in Wiltshire on Tuesday on their attempted non-stop flight—to India, According to advices received by the Air Ministry, before the airmen started, they intended to follow the “great circle” route—Berlin, Warsaw,

Odessa, Afghanistan and across the Himalayas—which is entirely a new route to India. On that course the plane would pass over great tracts of country, uninhabited except possibly by hostile tribes, and consisting of hilly ground unsuitable for landing. At dawn to-day the airmen expected to climb the high pass over the dangerous Himalayas and-enter India plane carried sufficient petrol to last until noon to-day. Clouds, mist and rain are reported along the route. These conditions have probably prevented observers seeing the plane.—A. and N.Z. RUNWAY TOO MUDDY GILES AGAIN DELAYS NEW ZEALAND FLIGHT Received 9.5 a.m. SAN FRANCISCO, To-day. Captain F. A. Giles prepared to depart to-day on his flight to New Zealand, hut he postponed the attempt till to-morrow. After the plane had been wheeled to the runway and fuelled, Captain Giles announced that the runway was too muddy to permit the heavy plane to take off. The weather between here and Hawaii is reported to be almost ideal for the flight.—A. and N.Z. 1 SAFETY WING-SLOTS AMERICAN RIGHTS SOLD LONDON, Thursday. The Secretary of State for Air, Sir Samuel Hoare, to-day was a passenger on an experimental flight of a machine fitted with automatic safety wing slots, the invention of the aircraft designer, Mr. Handley Page. American rights in the invention have been sold to the United States Government for £44,000. The slots are designed to give the pilot lateral control when flying slowly, and when in such a position as would ordinarily mean the stalling of the engine and a fatal spin, to which danger is attributed approximately 90 per cent, of all airplane accidents.—A. and N.Z.