LONG FLIGHT PLANNED

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 894, 11 February 1930, Page 1

LONG FLIGHT PLANNED

DUNEDIN-AUCKLAND NON-STOP CAPTAIN HEWITT’S EFFORT On Thursday the Auckland pilot, Captain J. Hewitt, will endeavour to establish a record by making a nonstop flight from Dunedin to Auckland in his D.H., Moth airplane “Falcon.” The machine is the standard type and will be fitted for the purpose with an extra 45-gallon petrol tank. Captain Hewitt intends to leave the Mangere Airdrome on a non-stop flight to Wellington this afternoon for the purpose of delivering greetings from the Auckland Aero Club to Mr. F. C. Chichester, who arrived there today after his flight from Croydon to Sydney. Captain Hewitt will probably leave Wellington - for Dunedin tomorrow on another non-stop flight. At present the Auckland flyer intends to leave Dunedin at 5' o’clock on Thursday morning and to land at Auckland about 10 hours later: The flight will not be made in a direct line from Dunedin to Auckland, but via Christchurch, Wellington, Palmerston North and thence over the King Country, following the Main Trunk railway line.

The machine will ni>t be forced along, but it is Captain Hewitt’s intention to maintain a steady cruising speed of about 70 miles an hour. It is estimated that the distance of the flight will be a little more than 600 miles.

The longest non-stop flight, made to date is that of Lieut. S. Wallingford, who flew from Wellington to the Hobsonville Air Base after the recent Wellington aero pageant.