A GREAT FEAT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 July 1938, Page 5

A GREAT FEAT

FLIGHT ROUND THE WORLD IN UNDER FOUR DAYS HUGHES GETS OVATION IN NEW YORK THE AIRMAN’S NARRATIVE. TRIBUTE TO COMPANIONS. By Telegraph—Press Association. Copyright. NEW YORK, July 15. The millionaire American airman, Howard Hughes, and his crew of four, who left New York on the afternoon of July 10- on a flight round the world, made the return landing here at 2.37 p.m. yesterday, having encircled the globe in 91 hours 14 minutes 10 seconds. Hughes was given a tremendous ovation on his arrival. He said that he had been at the controls all the way round the world, but used the robot pilot whenever he could. The approximate distance flown was 14,680 miles at an average flying speed of 206.71 miles an hour. The film star, Katharine Hepburn, had arrived in New York to meet Hughes, but he was unable to keep the tryst because he retired early at his hotel, leaving word that he did not want to be disturbed. Hughes said on his arrival that he had been attended by great luck on the flight. He expressed doubt that he would ever attempt such a feat again. “The original take-off from New York was the most dangerous part ■ of the flight, due to overloading,” he said. “The delay in Paris was my own fault. I taxied to the end of the military runway for the take-off and then decided that the runway was too short, so I taxied on to the grass. I felt the rear wheel hit a hole and we found later that the tail gear had been ruptured. “Both radio and celestial navigation were necessary to keep the plane on her course. For most of the way I flew blind, particularly across Europe and Asia. From Paris to Moscow the. weather was so thick that I turned off all the lights and stuck to the instruments. Sometimes the radio was perfect; at others not worth a damn.” Referring to his flight across the Atlantic, Hughes said that he did not see one wave all the way. He termed his colleagues the best crew in the world. “We used plenty of oxygen. Frequently we flew as high as 16,000 feet, although most of the journey was done at 12,000 feet. I had only three hours’ sleep in the plane, plus two at Paris.”

The best time previously made for a round-the-world flight was that of the late Wiley Post, in July, 1933, of 15,596 miles in 7 days 18 hours 491 minutes. Howard Hughes is a millionaire oil operator and film producer who sprang to fame in the motion picture world with “Hell’s Angels.” Two years ago he set up a world speed record for land aeroplanes of 352 miles an hour, and crossed from Los Angeles to New York in 9 hours 27 minutes 10 seconds. In January, 1937, he broke this record when he flew from Los Angeles to Newark in 7 hours 28 minutes 25 seconds. Last year he was awarded the Harman Trophy. In October, 1937, it was announced that, with Dick Merrill, the trans-continental mail plane pilot, he planned a three-day round-the-world flight.