ROUND THE WORLD IN UNDER 24 DAYS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 461, 17 September 1928, Page 12

ROUND THE WORLD IN UNDER 24 DAYS

JULES VERNE OUTDONE 18,000-MILE HOP I Captain Charles B. D. Collyer, pilot, and John Henry Mears, theatrical : producer and writer, established a i new record for encircling the globe | when they landed at New York exactly 23 days 15 hours and eight seconds after they had taken off from the same place. The former record, made in the summer of 1926 by Linton Wells and Edward F. Evans, was 28 days, 14 hours, 36 minutes, 5 seconds. They used trains, planes, autompbiles and ocean liners, hiring their transportation wherever they found it. The globe circlers’ cabin monoplane, the City of New York, had been placed on the deck of the Olympic before they started. Six days later they took off from Cherbourg and in six days more they had crossed Europe and Asia to set their plane down on the landing field at Tokyo. The day after they reached Tokio they put their plane aboard the Empress of Russia. They landed at Victoria, 8.C., on Saturday morning, and took off at once. They stopped at Spokane for fuel and spent Saturday night at Minneapolis, an 1,800mile flight for the day. They left Minneapolis at 5.47 a.m., flying in storms and fog most of the way. 840 Miles A Day The globe circlers travelled 19,725 miles at an average speed of 840 miles a day. Fifteen of these days were spent on ships and eight in the air. By steamer they made 8,535 miles of the trip, and they flew 11,190 miles, averaging better than 1,000 miles a day In their plane. Collyer and Mears attributed a part of their success to their mascot, a white Sealyham terrier which Collyer called Tailwind. It was presented to the flyers the day before they left by Miss Vivienne Osborne, an actress.

The flyers on their last hop ran into headwinds and bad weather. Across Wisconsin they flew blind much of the way. The weather became worse as they proceeded. The clouds in many places had settled down below the tops of the Alleghanies, but Collyer felt his way through them by instinct and instrument.

“We had fairly good weather from Cherbourg to Tokio and received wonderful co-operation all along the line, especialy in Russia,” Mears said to a “New York Times” reporter. “The most thrilling part of our flight was the 1,300 miles from Mukden to Tokyo. It was dark and cloudy when we reached Japan, and when at last we located the airport at Tokyo we had but 15 minutes of fuel left.” No Engine Trouble The plane and motor functioned perfectly and as far as their' equipment is concerned they could start off around the world again to-day* Collyer said. An engineer for the builders of the 400-h.p. motor looked over the engine and did nothing to it. “We carried neither a screwdriver nor a wrench and they were never needed,” Collyer said. The pilot added that the work done by Hubert Huntington, of New York, who aided him in preparing his charts before the start, had been invaluable. “We worked until 3 or 4 o’clock every morning for several months ojj these charts,” he said. “And I think there was more preparation done on them than for most other flights. I knew every 15 minutes of the trip just where every star and point was. Another invaluable aid was the sextant perfected by Mr. Huntington’s father.”

Both men appeared exhausted. Collyer said he had been ill before starting and lost eight pounds in the six-day flight across Europe and Asia.