SIX YEARS AGO.

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 326, 6 January 1937, Page 6

SIX YEARS AGO.

First Solo Flight Of Tasman Sea. To-morrow is the sixth anniversary of the first solo flight across the Tasman Sea, by Guy Menzies, Sydney, in an Avro Avian Sports, on January 7, 1931. His machine was the Southern Cross Junior, previously flown from England to Australia by Sir Charles Kingsford Smith. His departure from Australia was kept secret. He told his family that his objective was to make a record flight to Perth. Nothing else was divulged about his plans, and when, late on the evening of January 5, the aeroplane was wheeled out at Mascot, and the pilot placed on board food supplies for two days, and water for five days, with petrol sufficient for 18 hours’ flying, it struck no one as unusual. He left at 1 a.m., Sydney time, on January 6, and landed in a swamp at Hari Hari,. South Westland, at 3.12 p.m. on January 7 12hr. 12min. from coast to coast, a distance of 1066 miles.