Off For Australia

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1079, 17 September 1930, Page 9

Off For Australia

MATTHEWS LEAVES ENGLAND Plan to Smash Record MAY REACH DARWIN IN SIX DAYS THE first of a of English fliers, Captain F. J. Mat- - thews, is on his way on the first stage of an attempted record flight to Australia. He plans to reach Sofia at the first hop and to touch Darwin, Australia, in six days. High-speed airplanes are being’ built for other aviators, whose planes are being- kept a close secret.

Reed. 10.15 a.m. LONDON, Tuesday. Captain F. .T. Matthews, who is one of several airmen contemplating record flights from England to Australia, hopped off from Croydon Airdrome early this morning in a Puss Moth light airplane. A British Wireless message says Captain Matthews hopes to be able to make longer hops—of from 1,500 to 2.000 miles —than was possible when Bert Hinkler flew in a Moth machine of an earlier pattern. Captain Mjittliews is carrying a rifle with him in case of emergency, but he is without goggles, helmet or other flying kit. He hopes to reach Sofia, 11011-stop, today and continue via Aleppo, Baghdad, Bunder Abbas, Jodhpur, Calcutta, Bankok and Rinbong to Port Darwin. It was reported earlier that Captain Matthews’s outward stages will be to Sofia, then Bagdad, Calcutta, Singapore, the. Island of Flores, and Darwin, thus reaching Australia in Six days. After resting a day in Darwin Captain Matthews proposes to return in six days. He has been a pilot at Stag Lane airdrome for nine years, and an instructor with the London Airplane Club for four years. Pilots who are arranging the flights to Australia are keeping their plans a close secret. Mrs. Barnard states that she did not know that her husband, Captain Barnard, who was the Duchess of Bedford’s pilot to Capetown and back, and who recently flew.

non-stop from London to Malta and back in two days, intended to compete until a day or two ago. Mr. Hinkler is reported to be still working on a plane in contemplation of the same flight. The “News Chronicle” states that Major Pickthorne and Murray will fly to Australia together, while the other airmen who contemplate the trip will go solo. The competitors, who are all to pay their own expenses, suggest that a prize should be offered for what will be one of the greatest air races ever planned. An official of the de Havilland Company states that the Moth factory has been engaged for some weeks constructing long-range high-speed planes for private fliers, who wish to try to break records. He added that it was by no means certain that all these pilots would make Australia their ultimate goal. Captain Matthews is reported to be planning an extension of his Australian flight to “eclipse anything ever accomplished by air.” “The latest weather reports of the Air Ministry caused me to decide to cut out the Australian part of my round-world flight,” Mrs. Victor Bruce stated a week ago. “I hope to attempt to break Mr. Hinkler’s record later.” Later A message from "Vienna says Matthews passed eastward at six o’clock in the evening.