WHEN “SMITHY” MISSED

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 572, 26 January 1929, Page 8

WHEN “SMITHY ” MISSED

There will probably be no disputing the contention that any feat of aviation which surpassed Kingsford Smith’s trans-Pacific hops would have to be something extremely good. Yet Colonel Arttiro Ferrarin, an Italian, beat “Smithy” by two votes for the coveted international award of the International Aviation League. Ferrarin’s feat was not heard much of in New Zealand. Other events of closer national interest overshadowed it at the time. But he and his comrade, Delprete, flew from Italy to Brazil in a non-stop flight of nearly 5,000 miles. In actual distance covered it surpassed the flights of the Southern Cross, but there were not the niceties of navigation demanded of the Southern Cross party in hitting such points as the Fiji group. The Italian pair were in the air from Tuesday until Thursday. They flew over Africa, within sight of Gibraltar, and on a diagonal course over the Atlantic, landing at Port Natal, In Brazil. Then the irony that pursues airmen intervened. Just as Ross Smith was killed on an ordinary routine flight, and just as Warneford, V.C., was killed in a simple accident after his heroic feat of bringing down the first Zeppelin of the war, so Delprete was killed in a minor crash at Port Natal before he and Ferrarin could reach their ultimate goal at Rio.