AIR RECORD SHATTERED

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 740, 13 August 1929, Page 9

AIR RECORD SHATTERED

FEAT OF FLYING DUCHESS AND BARNARD FLIGHT TO INDIA AND BACK British Official W'irelcss RUGBY, Monday. By flying to India and back in seven and a‘half days the Duchess of Bedrord and Captain C. D. Barnard. her pilot, have reduced the previous record for the return journey by no less than seven and a—halt‘ days, the previous best time being 15 days, taken by the voyage of Air Vice— Marshal Sir Vyall Vyvyan, Director of Imperial Airways, last year. On the return journey they established a new record for the flight from India. to England, which was accomplished in three and a-half days, as compared with four and a-hall‘ days taken by Captain Barnard and Flying-Oflicer Alliott in the same machine last year.

The record for the journey from England to India still stands to the credit of the two Royal Air Force pilots, Squadron-Leader Jones Williams and Flight-Lieutenant N. H. Jenkins, who flew from Cranwell, Lincolnshire, to Karachi,in April this year, non-stop. in 50; hours. PLANE FIVE YEARS OLD

The Fokker monoplane Spider, in which the Duchess of Bedford and Captain Barnard have accomplished their remarkable performance, is now nearly five years old. It was originally acquired for the abortive attempt to fly across the Atlantio of Captain Mclntosh and Colonel FitzMaurice.

For this last flight its speed had been considerably increased by fitting a new type of 500 horse-power geared Bristol Jupiter air-cooled engine. The actual flying time of the journey of 10,000 miles was 88% hours. The stages of the flight were:— Friday, August 2. Lympne to Sofia, 1,350 miles; Saturday, Sofia to Aleppo, Syria, 850 miles; Sunday, Aleppo to Bushire, Persia, 1,090 miles: Monday. Bushire to Karachi, 1,060 miles: Tuesday, Karachi to Bushire; Wednesday Bushire t 0 Aleppo Thursday, Aleppo to Sofia; Friday, August 9, Sofia to Croydon. The start was made at (lawn each day from the respective stopping places. and the flying occupied some—times as much as 15 hours before the aviators landed for a brief night's rest. DUCHESS TAKES CONTROL Captain Barnard in his 1054 remarks that the Duchess frequently took com~ plete control of the airplane, while he and the mechanic, Mr. B. Little, slept. He says: “I usually put her on a con» pass course, and then got back into the cabin with perfect confidence. I know many good pilots who are quite incapable of steering a good course by compass, but the Duchess has so far not made a single mistake. In fact, instead of being a. passenger, she has been a. tremendous help to us on the flight.”