MOONLIGHT FLYING.

Wairarapa Age, 17 February 1927, Page 5

MOONLIGHT FLYING.

DE PINEDO’S ATLANTIC AFRICA TO CAPE VERDE ISLANDS. T LONDON, February 15. The Marchese de Pinedo, the famous Italian aviator, who arrived at Rio Ora yesterday on his w r ay from Geneva to South America, has fired public imagination by flying at night in the hope of saving a day in the Atlantic crossing. He left Rio Oro, a Spanish colony on the West Coast of Africa, at 11 o’clock last night by moonlight in his flying boat, and passed over Cape Verde at 5.15 a.m., going splendidly. He expects to be in Pernambuco, Brazil, on Wednesday.—(A. and N.Z.). FURTHER STAGES. PARIS, February 15. De Pinedo arrived at Bolama at 8.15 a.m., cevcring a thousand miles at 104 miles an hour. To-morrow he starts on his flight across the Atlantic, crossing to Port Natal, Brazil, a distance of 870 miles. Bolama is a town in Portuguese Guinea, south of the Gambia Rfver.— (A. and N.Z.). A URUGUAYAN COMPETITOR. PARIS, February 15. A thrilling transatlantic aerial race is in prospect owing to the announcement that Major Borgess, a Uruguayan airman, has arranged to take off at Pisa on Thursday in an attempt to fly the Atlantic over practically the same route as de Pinedo, landing at Pernambuco and ending the flight at Montevideo. Borges is using a Dornier seaplane, equipped with two Farman 500 h.p. motors. The fact that de Pinedo was aware of the Uruguayan’s flight explains the secrecy of de Pinedo’s own start.—(A. and N.Z.).

(The shortest Atlantic crossing is between Cape Verde, the westernmost point of Afica, and Cape St. Roque, the easternmost point of South a few miles north of Pernambuco. The distance is under 900 miles. This transAtlantic flight was accomplished successfully by the Spanish aviator Franco who carried on his flight via Rio de Janeiro to Buenos Aires. The Marchese de Pinedo is embarking on a long flight, with the primary object of testing out speed possibilities. The route will be a triangular one from Italy to South America, and up the West Coast to San Francisco and British Columbia, and back across the Atlantic via the Azores and Lisbon. The airman expects to complete the whole flight of 25,000 miles in two months.).