Hinkler’s New Record

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 284, 21 February 1928, Page 9

Hinkler’s New Record

LONGEST SOLO FLIGHT ARRIVAL AT BATAVIA British Wireless—■ Press Assn.—Copyright Reed. 12.30 p.m. RU6BY, Monday. By arriving at Singapore yesterday only 13 days after leaving London, the Australian airman, Mr. Bert Hinkler, has obtained for British aviation a remarkable new world’s record.

Mr. Hinkler has kept to his programme of long hops with absolute regularity, and by covering over 8,000 miles, he has accomplished the longest solo flight ever made in any machine, and made the London to Singapore journey in the quickest time on record.

This he has done with a light British Avro-Avian airplane with a Cirrus engine of only 28 horse-power. He has encountered mixed weather during the flight, and has passed from extreme cold during the earlier part, of the journey to tropical heat, which made the wings of his machine too hot to touch. In flying from Victoria Point, Burma, to Singapore yesterday, a distance of nearly 900 miles, he met with violent rain storms. He arrived at Batavia this afternoon and hopes to reach Port Darwin on Wednesday, in which event he will have fulfilled his original intention of flying to Australia in 18 days. With a safe margin he hopes to continue his flight to his home at Bundaberg, Queensland. His little machine costs about 2*d a mile to fly.—A. and N.Z.