Fruits of Fame

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1068, 4 September 1930, Page 9

Fruits of Fame

COSTES TAKES £5,000 TRIP Non-Stop Run to Texas PLANS LATER TO CIRCLE CLOBE pKESH front the conquest of the Atlantic Ocean, the. French a fliers. Captain Costes ancl Lieutenant Bellonte, have accepted Ud,ooo for a non-stop flight from Xew York 1o Dallas, Texas. They will take-off today. • " HVe ol ' enthusiasm, rivalling that displayed when Liudbersrli arrived, swept New York as the iliers were paraded through the crowded streets and welcomed at Citv Hall. Costes aspires to encircle tlie globe, including trips over both poles.

' United I'. A.—By Telegraph— Copyright ) Costes and Bellonte have announced their acceptance of an offer of £5,000 for a non-stop flight from New York ; Dallas, Texas, made by Mr. W. E. a millionaire, r The fliers plan to start tomorrow. Interviewed, Costes revealed his ambition to circle the Globe, from ; north to south. ! “I am confident that with the present experience T can get even more out of our ship in future,” he said. “It is my hope that some time I shall be able to fly around the earth, making a trip to include both poles.” Captain Costes and Lieutenant Bellonte were officially welcomed at City Hall alter the customary parade through the streets and financial dis--1 trict. Solid masses of cheering citizens lined the streets, while torn scraps of paper floated from office buildings, which were festooned with the flags of the United States and France. The enthusiasm was as vivid as that which marked the United States’s greeting to Lindbergh three years ago. At City Hall the fliers were received by Mayor Walker and other notable persons, who praised their achievements. After that they were presented with a scroll and the traditional | key to the freedom of the city, j After the reception the fliers, sitting ! on the top of an automobile, were j driven with a motor-cycle police | escort through the more crowded streets to their hotel. NOVEL “STUNT” The very latest idea in advertising apparently was carried out with the help of the French fliers in the airplane Question Mark. Some of the newspapers in New York this morilng publish full-page advertisements in French describing the principal resorts in France, sending greetings to Captain Costes and capitalising his feat in the interests of “tourism,” for which, says the advertisement, the French are famous. “Come to France” is the slogan advertised. IN THE BLOOD FLYING ABSORBS COSTES SCARED—BUT ADVENTUROUS j Costes is now in his 37th year and has been flying airplanes for 19 years. He wanted to fly because, when he was a lad and flying was new, it fired his imagination. He wanted to make money out of flying, for having none in his youth he knew the value of i money. It has just been inciden- : tal that flying has led him into innum- i erable scrapes and dangers; that he has possibly lived through more escapes from death than most men. < He says he Is always scared. He is i I

- scared when lie takes a ride in a Paris 1 taxi-cab. He is scared every time ) he takes oft' in a plane and every time : he has to make a landing. It was a pure musketeer adventure, when at Salonika he got tired of army rations and went duck shooting with . his plane and a machine-gun so as to t set a change of diet. He paid for it, for he_ was demoted, had his plane , taken away from him and was put > back into the infantry for three ■ months. But he just fought so well ' as a foot soldier that he won a new citation and got his plane back again. Aviation was a new thing when Costes was 17, and he became one of the earliest flight fans. But it was a rich man’s sport. COMMERCIAL PILOT ; Costes started to work seriously and saved his money until he had enough to enter as a candidate for a pilot's licence in Bleriot’s school. in two and a-half months ho had won his certificate, and was passed out of the school as a “safe and sane” pilot. If ever any man had flying in his blood, Costes had it then. He was not interested in anything else. As soon as he was out of the army he engaged as a commercial pilot, first with one line, then with another, flying in all weathers, always delivering his passengers and freight safely I and on time, enjoying himself immensely between flights, making enemies and making friends. Last year he and Bellonte attempted the Atlantic flight. He went the southern route because the air currents were supposed to he with him from the Azores. HAD TO TURN BACK Instead, he found a head wind that he and Bellonte had to buck for five hours. Their flying pace was cut down to nearly half. It was obvious they could never do the thing chicly even if they did make the American coast. Without hesitation Costes turned back. The wind he had been fighting would carry him home. He had not anything to explain. It was just common sense. The season had grown late and he had the machine still on his hands, so he turned east. The story of that flight, which began on last September 27 at 7.45 a.m. and ended at Tsitsikar, in Mariehurm, as evening was closing in on September 30, and all that happened afterward is one of the most j amazing stories of flight. FRANCE EXCITED PARIS, Wednesday. J A delirious wave or enthusiasm spread throughout France on receipt of the news of the success of the transatlantic flight of Costes and Bellonte. Crowds blocked the many streets where the news was posted. The people of France feel that the j deaths of Coli and Nungessor have j been avenged by their comrades.