WILL HINKLER FLY THE TASMAN?

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 304, 15 March 1928, Page 10

WILL HINKLER FLY THE TASMAN?

ANEW interest was given the trans-Tasman flight project by the offer of Sir Benjamin Fuller to finance Mr. Bert Hinkler, should the intrepid Australian care to essay the flight. And accompanying this announcement, and emphasising the risks of the air, was the news of the tragic death of Lieutenant Kinkead in attempting to lower the world’s speed record, that of Lieutenant J. E. Mclntyre who crashed at Adelaide, the last and fatal flight of Lady Carbery while instructing a pupil in Kenya Colony, the crashing of a British fighter and the killing of two officers—and to-day is published the statement that hope has been abandoned for the safety of Captain Hinchcliffe and the Honourable Elsie Mackay, who left England on Tuesday morning for a flight across the Atlantic! These tragedies for the moment overshadow the question of the Tasman flight, and tend to make people wonder whether the few glories of the air are worth the sacrifice of so many disasters. But there is no diminishing the spirit of the airman. His familiarity with the air breeds a contempt of danger and a desire for achievement that cannot be repressed. Hairbreadth escapes from the greatest perils do not deter them from facing new risks, and even amid all the tragedies of the past week people are asking, “Will Hinkler fly the Tasman?” Kinkead is killed, and McIntyre, of Australia; Lady Carbery has flown her last flight; Flying Officer Matthews and Lieutenant Stott crashed to death at Monston; Hinchcliffe and Miss Mackay are missing. In a brief space they will have become faint, sad memories, and the flying men—and women—will carry on as before! Hinkler’s achievement in completing a solo flight from England to Australia was a wonderful one. Some of his “hops” from one landing place to another were as long, or almost as long, as is the “hop” from Sydney to the coast of New Zealand. It does no discredit to that brave flight to say that luck was with the flier. Would that luck see him safely over the Tasman? Perhaps the fate of Captain Hood and Lieutenant Moncrieff, and the more recent air tragedies, have exaggerated the risk of the Tasman flight in the mind of the layman. It may not appear so perilous to such a man as Hinkler, and if he accepts the offer of Sir Benjamin, it may be taken for granted that he will leave Australia reasonably equipped for every emergency. One would *ay of Hinkler: “He has done enough ; let him rest on his fame But the Hinklers of the world seldom rest. Adventure is thenspice of life, and it will not be surprising if the Australian airman wings this way.