LOST IN THE AIR.

Taranaki Daily News, 17 July 1922, Page 5

LOST IN THE AIR.

LANDING ON VAST DESERT. BLAKE’S WORLD FLIGHT, ARRIVAL AT BAGDAD. By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. Received July 16, 5.5 p.m. 1 Bagdad, July 14. Major Blake, who is attempting to fly round the world, has arrived here. He states the journey from Aboukir was full of incident. On landing at Ziza the shack absorber of the undercarriage gave way. The damage was soon repaired, but Malins was suffering from heat, and it was necessary to send a wireless to Amman for a doctor. He thought Malins would be better for a day’s rest, so they deferred the start for Bagdad and camped for the night in the desert, Ziza being a mere spot in the desert, fifty miles east of the Dead Sea. On Wednesday morning the two machines £an armed plane accompanied Major Blake) began the flight to Bagdad over six hundred miles of waterless desert, marked only by a track which a motor lorry convoy made last year. As the pilot of the Vickers-Vernon aeroplane had done the journey before lie led the way, while the Vickers-Vernon also carried Blake’s' stores, including fifteen gallons of drinking water and emergency rations.

Major Blake continued: “We had been flying one and a half hours when the Vickers-Vernon lost its way owing to our distracting the pilot’s attention by flying close to his machine to enable Malins to obtain photographs. The Vickers-Vernon landed and we followed, but we went up again and searched for the route and when we found it the Vickers-Vernon followed behind us. The heat was intense and we experienced terrific bumps. The heat was so great that the Vickers-Vernon could not rise above five hundred feet. Two wireless aerials were carried away as the result of hitting rocks.

“Half an hour later the VickersVernon had to descend again, as repairs to its oil pumps were necessary, but the engine was still running badly, so I decided to continue alone. Flying until dusk we landed at Eljid, where we were well received by the Arabs, one of whom wore a rusty Gillette razor suspendcl from his right ear. After we kissed the Sheiks and headman a sheep was killed in our honor and we were forced to carry away the bleeding carease in our aeroplane. ‘‘At dawn on Thursday we started on the last lap of the Bagdad flight. On several occasions we had to fly around in circles before we could pick up the the track, and consequently we exhausted our petrol before reaching Ramadie. This was awkward, but by draining all the petrol tanks and pouring al] the spirit thus obtained into one gravity tank we just managed to raise enough to enable us to get into the air again and crawl to Ramadie. Here the political officer gave us beer and food. A few minutes later a machine from Bagdad, which was searching the desert for us, as we were long overdue, appeared. “Thus we reached Bagdad, sorry spectacles, unshaven and dirty, as we were unable to wash for three days, but all felt quite fit after food and a bath. The aeroplane and the engine are behaving splendidly.”—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.

At noon on May 28—Empire Day— Major Blake and two companions set out on their great adventure to fly round the world. Engine troubles delayed the airmen for some time in France, and there was another delay in Italy, but since then the progress of the flight has been rapid. From Bagdad the airmen aim to proceed to India, China. Japan. Alaska, across Canada to Newfoundland and then hack to England.