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Aviation History
1931
1931 - 1201.PDF
FLIGHT, NOVEMBER 13, 1931 Butler's Flight to Australia SMALL pilot in a smallmachine has, by a small margin, it is true,beaten the record for the flight from England to Aus-tralia of 9 days 4 hr. 11 min. established by Mr. C. W. A. Scottlast April. Mr. C. A. Butler, who. as reported last week, left Lympnein his Comper " Swift " (75-h.p. Pobjoy engine) on October 31,after steadily gaining on Mr. Scott's time until towards the end,succeeded in accomplishing the journey in 9 days 2 hr. 29 min.,thus beating the record by 1 hr. 42 min. The main achievementof this flight, however, is the mag- nificent performance of the littleComper " Swift " monoplane and its comparatively new Pobjoy" R " engine—apart, of course, from the remarkable " endurance "of Mr. Butler himself. It may be of interest to notehere that a few years ago Mr. Butler, who is a native of Shirley,near Birmingham, designed and constructed at Cootamundra,N.S.W., a high-wing monoplane not unlike the " Swift " on whichhe has now broken the record. In our report of Mr. Butler's flightin last week's issue we left him speeding from Karachi on the fifthday of his flight, November 4. His previous stages may be fol-lowed from the accompanying log. Reports of his progress fromKarachi have been somewhat '•"fess The Comper "Swift" with 75-h.p. Pobjoy "R" engine.> he top illustration shows the assortment of Smith's aero instruments and the. special drinking-water supply on thismachine. (FLIGHT Photo.) vague, but it appears he flew toJansi and from there on to Cal- cutta, where he arrived on themorning of November 5. His de- parture from Dumdum aerodromewas delayed for some time by a torrential rainstorm with highwind, but in spite of further bad weather ahead he managed toreach Akyab that afternoon. From Akyab he proceeded toRangoon, where he arrived on the morning of November 6, and aftera halt of one hour for refuelling he left again for Victoria Point.Here he was again held up by a strong head wind—a great misfor-tune, for up to this he had been gaining steadily on Scott's time. However, he pushed off as soonas possible, and, making a halt of but 50 minutes to refuel at Singa-pore, arrived at Batavia in the evening of November 7. He leftagain in the early hours of the following morning for Koepang.After a brief halt at Koepang he started on the final over-sea hopto Darwin on November 9. A large crowd greeted him whenhe landed at Darwin at 4.23 p.m. (local time), and as soon as he hadascertained that he had beaten the record, he requested that news ofhis safe arrival be sent to his mother. He said he was not a bitfatigued and had had an excellent trip except for the last sections. On hearing of his safe arrival inAustralia, the Marquis of London- derry, Secretary for Air, sent the following message toMr. "Butler: — " On behalf of the Air Council I send you warmestcongratulations on completion of your splendid flight and on establishing a new record from England to Australia."With regard to the actors, large and small, in this splendid performance, the little Comper " Swift " shouldbe familiar to all our readers, for it has been described and illustrated in FLIGHT on many occasions (a detaileddescription appeared in our issue of January 17, 1930, and briefer descriptions in those for April 4, 1930, andNovember 21, 1930), so we need hardly refer to it again here, except to point out that machine and engine wereabsolutely standard, apart from the fitting of extra tank- age. The latter consisted of one 14£-gal. and one 27J-gal. tanks, which brought the load carried up to about the equivalent of two passengers in addition to the pilot ;the cruising range was 1,025 miles. With the petrol carried, 1J gal. of drinking water, plus 5 gal. of oil, themachine had a gross weight of 1,160 lb. In spite of this it took off in a run of 125 yd. in 8 sec. The 75-h.p. Pobjoy " R " engine has also been fullydescribed in FLIGHT (June 5, 1931), and likewise needsno further comment here. We might mention, however, that a large number of the parts for this engine, includ-ing the cylinder barrels, heads, and pistons, etc., are manufactured by the Mollart Engineering Co., of Queen'sKoad, Thames Ditton. As on the record flight to the Cape, K.L.G. plugs,B.T.H. magnetos, and Smith's Aero Instruments (including Oct. 31,, 31 Nov. 12 3 67 8-99 Log of Flight Depart Lympne, 5.10 a.m.Naples Brindisi-AthensAleppo-Baghdad . Basra-Jask..Karachi-Jansi -alcutta-Akyab .Rangoon-Victoria Point . Singapore-Batavia KoepangDarwin, arr. 4.23 p.m. (local T.) . Appro x.Miles 990560 1,200 1,1001,300 1,050900 1,500 1,300525 Total 10,425 1125
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