COMMENT IN BRITAIN

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 374, 7 June 1928, Page 9

COMMENT IN BRITAIN

MOST OUTSTANDING FEAT (Australian Press Association) LONDON. Wednesday. The trans-Pacific flight in the Southern Cross is regarded everywhere in England as the most outstanding performance in the history of British flying. The aviation correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph” says the mere fact that Captain Kingsford Smith found Fiji at all after a flight of over 3,000 miles above the ocean was a remarkable feat of navigation. It was, he says, a triumph in the progress of aerial navigation gradually mastered and unaided by extraneous directional wireless. In ocean flying, says the writer, there are no fixed landmarks and nothing by which the pilots can estimate drift. Great deviations are very easy when the goal is a mere island and the craft strictly limited as to its fuel supply. The writer acknowledges the wonderful success attained and acknowledges that with the threeengined machine, plus confidence in

"The navigator’s skill, resource and initiative were shown when, after all these quick movements throughout the night, he could plot our position when we came out of the mess and say: ‘Here boy, here is where you are.’ “That we came through was not luck. Get the right men and equipment and co-ordinate them and you will get through with the co-operation of the public.” Mr. Ulm said he appreciated their enthusiasm and hoped their hop would lead to a regular air service between America and Australia and bind these two nations more closely together. (Prolonged applause). Captain Lyon said: “I have never made a speech in my life. I had to navigate. If I had not found Suva where would I have been? I have had such a good time in this world that I want to carry on.” Mr. Warner expressed his gratitude for Suva's welcome. A reception was given in the afternoon at the residence of Lieutenant Ellis.