FLIGHT ROUND THE WORLD.

Taranaki Daily News, 15 April 1922, Page 5

FLIGHT ROUND THE WORLD.

AVIATORS’ GREAT ADVENTURE. PLANS BEFORE DISASTER. Received April 13, 9.15 p.m. London, April 12. The Daily Telegraph interviewed Sir Ross Smith, who starts his flight round the world on the 25th, accompanied >by Sir Keith Smith and Lieut. Bennett on a Vickers Viking amphibian machine ? made by the same workmen who constructed the Vickers Vimy, of the Australian flight. The machine is boat-like in construction. surmounted by a biplane. A 450 horse-power Napier engine, mounted high between the wings, driving the propeller behind the wings, has been tested for endurance and temperatures and exposed for long periods and immersion in salt water. The landing wheels can be lowered in ninety seconds. A feature of the machine is the tail skids, which also act as a water rudder, tilled with compressed air under pressure of 250 lbs. The equipment includes a Reid control indicator, which informs the pilot when the machine is listing; and Mears glow lamps, which can be used in fog. The wireless set has been tested to and from the Eiffel Tower. The aerial, which is between the wings for receiving, is dropped, for sending messages. A certain number of spare parts will be carried and a spare engine will be available at Tokio. It will take 120 flying hours to reach Tokio, but Sir Rose Smith hopes the first engine will carry them to Borden, Canada. Forty-seven petrol depots have been organised. Each airman has one suit of clothes and eight pounds of luggage. They will be able to smoke, thanks to a special cigarette holder on the principle of the Davy lamp. It is expected the journey of 240 flying hours will be finished in three months. The aviators are confident and are looking forward cheerfully to their arduous experience. The route will be by France, Italy. Egypt. Mesopotamia, India, Burma, China, Japan, the Aleutian Islands, Alaska, the Canadian Lakes, New York, St. John’s, the Azores, and home. —Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.

FINE WAR RECORD. SIR ROSS SMITH’S CAREER. THRILLING EXPLOITS. At the outbreak of the Great War Sir Ross Smith enlisted in the 3rd Australian Ligh+ Horae Regiment, and sailed with the first Australian Expeditionary Force, landing in Egypt in December. 1914. . After four months on Gallipoli he gained his commission' and later he contracted enteric fever and was invalided to England. He rejoined his regiment in March. 1916. and took part in the Battle nf Romani during the last Turkish attack on the Suez Canal in August. 1916.

Tn the following October Sir Ross Smith joined the 67th (Australian) Squadron. Royal Flying Corp*, as an observer, qualifying as a pilot in Egypt in July, 1917. He then joined his old squadron, the No. 7 Squadron Australian Flying Corps, stationed in Southern Palestine, and remained there until the armistice. During the war he was twice wounded. He ha* one bar to his M.C. and two to hi* D.F.C.. which he won for descending behind the Turkish lines and successfully nicking up a brother airman, who had been compelled to make a forced landing. Tn December, 1918. he took part in the first flight from Cairo to Calcutta, and after arriving at Calcutta he went with Air Commodore Borton on his reconnaissance for aerodrome* in Burma, Siam. Malay States and the Dutch East Indies.

It was then in 1919 that Sir Ross Smith and Sir Keith Smith, with Lieut. Bennett (then Sergeant Bonnett) and Sergean Spiers, .started on their great adventure —the flight from England to Australia, which ended successfully in Sydney in February. 1920. Tt was an amazing achievement, but all Sir Ross Smith had to say was: “After the war we wanted to get home, and thought we might as well fly home. so wo flew home.” They won the £lO,OOO prize offered by the Australian Government, and the two Smith brothers were knighted.