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Aviation History
1931
1931 - 0862.PDF
FLIGHT, AUGUST 14, 1931 MOLLISON BEATS SCOTT Australia to England in 211 Hours 25 Minutes the confusion whichexists owing to the differ- ence in time betweenEngland and Australia, and also because the amount by which each fresh " record "beats the previous grows smaller and smaller, it would appear thatthe time has come to speak of the Australia-England " record "as having been reduced to so many hours instead of days.When Ross Smith first made the flight from England to Australia,in 1919, he took a fairly long time over it, and his successorsonly had to beat him by a week or so to be doing pretty well.But when one Bert Hinkler took it into his head to do the flightin 15i days or so, it became obvious that the " record " was <-not to be measured by a tear-off calendar, but required at the very least a decent pocket watch. Then KingsfordSmith reduced the time from Australia to England to 12 days 14 hours, and recently C. W. A. Scott reducedthat to 10 days 23 hours. And now Mollison has managed to cut it down to less than 9 days. For the next man(or woman) who lops something more off the time a stop watch will be needed to be certain the " record " reallyhas been broken. The obvious measure of the time be- tween Australia and England is the hour, and on thatbasis Mollison has beaten Scott by 50 hours. On his outward journey earlier this year Scott took 220 hours11 minutes, so that even this " record " has been beaten by Mollison by his recent homeward trip, with a marginof over 8 hours. Mr. J. A. Mollison, flying a De Havilland Gipsy Moth,left Sydney for Wyndham on July 25. His attempt on the " record " actually began when he left Wyndham onWednesday, July 29. The time was 1 a.m. local time, so that it was still Tuesday in England, and 5 p.m. THE OFFICIAL WELCOME: Mr. J. A. Mollison was greeted on his arrival at Croydon by Mr. F. Montague, Under-Secretary of State for Air. s Greenwich Mean Time to wit, the time-difference betweenWyndham and London being 8 hours exactly. There- fore, if Mollison had reached England at 5 p.m. G.M.T.on Thursday, August 6, he would have taken exactly 9 days, or 216 hours. Actually, he landed on the beachat Pevensey at 1.25 p.m. B.S.T., or 12.25 G.M.T., having completed the journey in a lapsed time of 8 days 19 hours25 minutes, or 211 hours 25 minutes. Of the flight itself, there is little to say. It was accom-plished in record time because the Gipsy engine kept on running, because Mollison's navigation was good, andbecause he went practically without sleep and did a good deal of night flying. As has been known to happen before,Lord Wakefield made the flight financially possible, thus once more helping to bring British aviation before theeyes of the world. On a flight of this sort every piece of equipment andevery accessory counts for a great deal, and, doubtless, Mollison was heartened in his night journeys by the factthat his Gipsy engine was fitted with K.L.G. plugs. THE END OF A STRENUOUS FLIGHT: Mr. Mollison arrives at Croydon on his Gipsy-Moth after flying from Australia to England in 8 days 19 hours 25 minutes. ? * 808
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