SOLO TO CAPE TOWN

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 413, 21 April 1937, Page 5

SOLO TO CAPE TOWN

Mrs. Bonney’s Progress. CHANGED ITINERARY. Cholera Raging at Bangkok. Presss Association —Copyright. (Received 11.5 a m.) Singapore, April 20. Owing to the outbreak of cholera a't Bangkok, where hundreds’ are dying, Mrs Bonney, who Is flying solo to CapQ Town, decided In take the coas'tal route to Rangoon. She has left Penang for Victoria Point. Mrs Bonney’s flight is being made m a German Klemm monoplane, and she has christened it “My Little Ship II.” Her first “little ship” was a Gipsy Moth. Mrs Bonney obtained her pilot’s licence in 1930 in Australia. Mrs Bonney was,'the first woman to fly solo round Australia.. She made this flight in 1933, and in the following year she made a solo flight from Australia to England—‘the first made by a woman. In the early stages of this flight she found herself flying into a monsoon, and she turned back to land on a strip of beach on an island off Siam. A water buffalo wandered into the patch, of the aeroplane, and a crash resulted. Mrs Bonney pluckily continued the flight to England, and sha was honoured with an M.B.E. BORN IN PRETORIA. Looking round for a flight which had not been previously attemp'ed, Mrs Bonney planned a cross-watei flight, but was unable to obtain the necessary finance, says an overseas paper. Her husband—who has approved and financed all her flights—suggested; “What’s ’Wrong with Africa?” The past, twelve, months have been devoted to laying down supplies of petrol, obtaining passports, and generally planning rations and clothes for the tour. “I like to see somethig of the countries over which I fly,” said Mrs Bonney recently, “and a flight to Africa could be done in much less time than I have planned. From Darwin I go to Koepang, then through. Java, Singapore, Bangkok. Rangoon, Calcutta, Benares, Agra, Dijlhi, Jodhpur, Karachi, Jask, Bu shire, Bagdad, Ru bar, W Ils, Cairo, then via Nairobi, Tanganyika, Pretoria—wile re I was born—and Johannesburg to Cape Town. It will be a nice little jaunt.”