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Aviation History
1932
1932 - 1133.PDF
FLIGHT, NOVEMBER 10, 1932 /lipisms from, the Bur \0mrLs A Race to the Cape Two attempts to better Mr. Mollison's 4 days 17 hr. 22 min. for a flight between London and Cape Town have been planned for this week. The first (which was due to start at midnight on Tuesday) by Mrs. Mollison (Miss Amy Johnson) and the second by M. Otto Thaning, the Danish Vice-Consul in Johannesburg, who recently flew from Africa to Denmark. Mrs. Mollison has sensibly stated that her flight is not a pioneer venture and she disclaims any intention of either teaching Imperial Airways their business or of claiming any special value for the flight. It is to be just a sporting attempt to reach the Cape as reasonably quickly as a " Puss Moth " can, and a flight for fun or for sport is a perfectly legitimate air gambol. Her machine is a standard " Puss Moth " called the Desert Cloud. It is fitted with the new " Gipsy Major " (or 111A) engine. It also has the long range fuel tanks which her husband used on his Cape flight earlier in the year. She will thus have a range of 2,000 miles or more. If she feels fit and untired she will be able to make hops of 1,500 miles or more and reach the Cape in a very few landings. Naturally and wisely she has timed the flight to take advantage of the full moon period of the month. Her route will be the West Coast or Great Circle course of about 6,200 miles, as compared with the 7,000 mile Imperial route. It is practically the same as the route used by her husband and as the one which the Fairey (Napier) long range monoplane will us<e. Should she improve on her husband's time it will of course be a stout effort, but any Cape flight which brings South Africa within a week of London is a good show. M. Otto Thaning arranged to start, also on a " Puss Moth," on his attempt to-day (November 10) from Copenhagen, but at the time of writing no details are to hand regarding his route. Girl Flyers to the Cape Held Up Miss JOAN PAGE and Miss Audrey Sale-Barker, who left Heston on October 26 in the former's " Gipsy Moth " for the Cape, are held up at Cairo. When they arrived there on November 2 their machine was slightly damaged on landing, but neither were injured, and repairs to the machine was only a matter of a few days. They are unable to proceed, however, as they have been forbidden to fly over the Soudan alone. It appears that they thought the R.A.F. would provide them with an escort, but the R.A.F. Middle East Headquarters state that such escorts cannot be provided. And One from the Cape MR. V. C. SMITH plans to leave the Cape in a " Moth " (Gipsy II) at midnight on November 13. Flying via Mossamedes, Pointe Noire, Duala, Gao, Adrar, Oran, and Perpignan or Bayonne, he hopes to arrive at Croydon on the 16th, thus beating the existing record held by Capt. C. D. Barnard. Long-Distance Flight THE Fairey (Napier) Long-Distance Monoplane piloted by Sqd. Ldr. O. R. Gayford and Fit. Lt. D. L. G. Bett will leave Cranwell aerodrome at dawn of the first day between November 9 and 15 on which there is a suitable wind. A local westerly wind is necessary for the take-off, while a northerly wind along the route is also desired, which is a combination not often found. The route will be the same as that chosen for the intended February flight, the long crossing of the Mediterranean being avoided by a slight deviation east of the Great Circle which will take the machine over Corsica and Sardinia. The aero drome at Tunis will be lit with the usual regulation light ing, the aerodrome at Hairwan with three lights in a triangle, while three lights in a line will be displayed on the aerodrome at Gabes, which will enable the pilots to fix their position and set a course across the wastes of the Sahara. A long-distance record is based on a great circle which, between Cranwell and Cape Town, is 6,060 statute miles, though the distance of the actual flight will be 6,198 miles. The present long-distance record is held by the Americans Boardman and Polando for their flight from New York to Constantinople on July 27-29, 1931, a distance of 5,012 miles. To reach Cape Town on the supply of fuel carried the Fairey monoplane will have to keep up an average speed of nearly 110 miles per hour. Flying Air Yacht Off Again MRS. J. J. JAMES, who, it will be remembered, set out from Southampton on October 11 in her Supermarine air yacht (3 Armstrong-Siddeley " Panther " engines) for a cruise around the Mediterranean and North Africa and was weatherbound at Cherbourg, resumed her trip on November 7. The Italian Formation World Flight IT is expected that the Italian formation flight round the world will start next March or April, when 24 modified Savoia S.55 seaplanes, fitted with new 800-h.p. Isotta- Fraschini engines will leave Orbetello for New York and Tokio. The Junkers Crash in Bavaria THE German Ministry of Communications has issued a statement on the cause of the crash of a Junkers F.13 monoplane in Bavaria on November 2, when the pilot and wireless operator and three passengers (two of them high officials) were all killed. The case is of special in terest technically, because it recalls the breaking up in the air of a Junkers F,13 over Meopham, in Kent, in July, 1930, when five persons, including Lord Dufferin, were killed. The German official statement says that the condition of the broken wing allows the cause of the accident to be cleared up beyond doubt. The pilot probably came down through clouds over the Spessart woods, it is added, in the belief that he had already passed this range, and then, finding himself in a narrow valley enclosed by wooded hills, suddenly pulled his machine up, " thus placing that abnormal stress on the structure which no aircraft can stand." Flying in New Zealand THE New Zealand Government has decided to purchase three aeroplanes for aero clubs and to subsidise the training of 100 club pilots. A BELGIAN TWO-SEATER RECONNAISSANCE MONOPLANE : The Renard R.31 is fitted with a Rolls-Royce " Kestrel " engine and is credited with a speed of 335 km./h. (208 m.p.h.) at 13,000 ft- 1055
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