The Sun MONDAY, APRIL 16, 1928. TRIUMPHS IN THE AIR

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 330, 16 April 1928, Page 8

The Sun MONDAY, APRIL 16, 1928. TRIUMPHS IN THE AIR

I UCK and a high adventurous spirit have .given Germany the ** crown of triumph for the first successful flight east to west across the Atlantic. Two German airmen and an intrepid Irishman have conquered where so many other fliers, equally courageous and competent, have plunged to disaster flying to death and passing beyond the ken of men in a shroud of mystery. The fact that the principal heroes of the latest transatlantic flight are Germans will not prejudicially affect the measure of international praise for their prowess and pleasure at their triumphant success. Courage is a universal virtue which will never fail to command admiration where and when it is exercised in thrilling adventure. Though a great deal of the splendid success of the Bremen must be attributed to the thoroughness of German preparation for a hazardous enterprise, it has to be recognised that the gods of chance who do not, of course, exist hut (as a wise essayist has observed) should not be treated with defiant arrogance too often, smiled on the exploit and bestowed on it a timely gift of good fortune. It is a tangible piece of luck that, as exhausted airmen emerge in desperate plight from an inhospitable upper wilderness of Labradorian storm and sleety fog, takes the form of an island in a remote place. Other adventurers on the same trackless route were denied so generous a play of happy chance. Indeed, the joyous fate of the Bremen’s men has revived a poignant shadowy hope that Captain Hinchcliffe and his companion, a headstrong girl with more wealth than wisdom, may be alive in an Eskimo village.

As a sensational “stunt” the Bremen’s triumph leaves nothing to be desired. Its appeal to the emotions is completely perfect. And it has proved that the grim hazards that overwhelmed pioneering flights across the Atlantic from its eastern seaboard can be overcome, though with very little safety to spare. Whatever other practical lessons it may give to aviation, the main lesson at the moment is that transatlantic voyaging by airplane will remain for some time yet a summer “stunt” fraught with the gravest risks. The Germans’ triumph represents advice not to try it too often. Mrs. Fitzmaurice has learnt the lesson most quickly in resolving to have something to say to her husband about it.

With almost the precision of a coincidence two gallant airmen concluded their wonderful flight round the world concurrently with the forced landing of the Bremen on Greenly Island in the head waters of the St. Lawrence. Their triumph us in sense emotional. It evokes sheer admiration for its practical service and value, in which, for those who like to look closely at their magnificent achievement, there is evidence of splendid courage and the highest power of endurance. And only the touch of sentiment in their triumphant enterprise is the name of their plane—the Nungesser-Coli. It commemorates French comrades who, as pioneers, lost their lives on a flight from Paris to New York. To circumnavigate the globe by plane, traversing 35,225 miles in 338 flying hours, is an achievement of inestimable value to the progress of aviation.