FAST FLYING

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 553, 4 January 1929, Page 1

FAST FLYING

New Zealander Travel Across America

Comfort with Speed

pedal to THE SUN) BLENHEIM, Thursda

i How delegates to the International j Civil Aeronautical Conference at I Washington flew from San Francisco I to Chicago in 17 J hours actual flying time is told in letters received l'rotp Mr. H. R. Dix, president of the Marlborough Aero Club, who is attending the conference as the delegate of the Auckland, Marlborough, Wellington, Hawke’s Bay and Mid-Canterbury Aero Clubs. Mr. Dix was accompanied by Colonel ■ Brinsmead and Captain Hughes, the ■ two Australian delegates and Captain Barlow, representing the Canterbury Aero Club. They left Sau Francisco on December 6 at 10.45 a.m., in a monster j Fokker. air liner, with accommodation | for eight passengers. The plane was ! fitted luxuriously, the conveniences in- | eluding wash-basins and drinking i fountains. Smoking was permitted, j The party sat in their richly uphol- ; stered chairs watching the continent | beneath them. At 5 p.m. the machine 1 landed at Salt Lake City, where the | travellers remained for most of the i next day. | After a sight-seeing tour the party ; embarked in two Boeing planes. The route lay over mountains from 6,000 ft. to S,oooft in height, and most of the flight was in darkness along a route marked by electric beacons every few miles. The 417 miles to Cheyenne was covered in under three hours. Here a great Ford three-engined machine was waiting, and into this leviathan of the air they transferred next day, taking off at 7 a.m. Four hours later they landed at Omaha, being entertained at a public luncheon in which Rotarians took a prominent part. Chicago was reached in darkness at 5.25 p.m., and a perfect landing made in a flood-lighted airdrome.