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Aviation History
1935
1935 - 0093.PDF
JANUARY IO, 1935. FLIGHT. 40 NOTABLE FLIGHTS IN 1934 A Review of Some Achievements that have Helped to Make Aeronautical History WHILE few of the noteworthy flights made during 3 934 were of a spectacular nature, there were many meritorious examples of what might be termed " utility " flights. Perhaps the outstanding flight of the year, apart from Messrs. Scott and Black's victorious journey in the Mel bourne Race, was the remarkable out-and-home journey ' between England and Australia by Lt. O. Cathcart Jones and Mr. Ken Waller in the D.H. " Comet " which they flew in the Race. The outward journey from Mildenhall to Melbourne—the actual participation in the Race—was accomplished, on October 20-25, in 4 days, 22 hours, 29 minutes, and the return journey, on October 27-November 2, in 5 days, 15 hours, 23 minutes. The 23,000 miles there and back was completed in just under a fortnight! Ordinary flights between England and Australia still found a few enthusiasts, but not so many as in previous years. An unofficial record was established in October by the young Australian pilot Mr. James Melrose, who flew his D.H. " Puss Moth " (" Gipsy Major ")—in which he subsequently took part in the " great race "—from Darwin to Croydon in 8 days 9 hours. Melrose, by the way, had previously (in August) made a remarkable flight round Australia (from Adelaide) in his " Puss Moth," tak ing 5 days 11 hours for the 8,000 miles and beating Mr. H. Broadbent's previous " record " by about two days. Two other noteworthy flights to " down under " fell to the fair sex. Miss Jean Batten, a young New Zealand pilot, set out to fly home in her "Gipsy II Moth," and, after two unsuccessful attempts, succeeded, during May, in accomplishing the journey from Lympne to Darwin in 14 days 23 hours 25 minutes, thus beating Mrs. Mollison's time for the same trip. Miss Freda Thompson, a 22-year- old Australian girl, also decided to fly home, leaving Lympne in her D.H. " Moth " (" Gipsy Major ") on Sep tember 28. She was not intending to beat " records," and after a delay in Greece from slight damage to her machine, reached Darwin on November 10. Surveying the Race Route Another England-Australia flight was that of Messrs. Bernard Rubin and Ken Waller, who left Lympne in March to survey the route for the MacRobertson Race, and gathered much useful data during a fifteen-day journey to Darwin. On their return flight they beat all previous re cords by doing the journey back to Lympne in 8 days 12 hours. Finally, Lord Sempill flew to Australia in his " Puss Moth " (" Gipsy III ") to attend the Centenary Celebrations at Melbourne, and his account of the journey is now appearing week by week in Flight. So recent that the principal facts must still be fresh in everyone's memory, another notable flight was that made to the Belgian Congo from Brussels by Mr. Ken Waller and M. Maurice Franchomme. Carrying Christmas mails in the Reine Astrid (Mr. Bernard Rubin's re-named D.H. " Comet "), they made the out and home journey of 8,000 miles in less than forty-five hours' flying time. Atlantic flights were not much in evidence, apart from the air mail services to South America of the Graf Zeppelin, Luft Hansa, and Air France. In May, Lt.-Com. G. R. Pond and Lt. E. SabelH left Floyd Bennett Field, New York, in a Bellanca monoplane with the intention of flying non-stop to Rome. Petrol feed trouble forced them down at Moy, County Clare, after a crossing lasting 32 hours 4 minutes, and they did not reach Rome until a month later. France also made an attempt at a long-distance Atlantic flight, likewise in May, but in the reverse direction. The well-known pilots, Paul Codos and Maurice Rossi, left Paris in the famous Bleriot-Zappata no monoplane (Hispano-Suiza), Joseph le Brix, with San Diego, Cali fornia, as their objective, but they only succeeded in reach ing Floyd Bennett Field, N.Y., after a flight of 38! hours. The North Atlantic was again crossed in August, when Messrs. J. R. Ayling and L. G. Reid set out from Wasaga Beach, Canada, in a D.H. "Dragon," Trail of the Caribou (formerly the Mollisons' Seafarer), with the inten tion of flying non-stop to Baghdad. Throttle trouble, how ever, forced them to land at Heston, 30 hours 50 minutes after leaving Canada. A less spectacular crossing was accomplished by Dr. R. U. Light, who started on a leisurely world tour from Labrador in a Bellanca seaplane on August 27, and flying via Ice land and Orkney, eventually reached Lccarno in October. Of flights across the South Atlantic, mention should be made of that from France to South America and back to Africa by Capt. Bonnot in the Latecoere 30.1 flying boat, Croix de Sud, early in the year. He flew 2,500 miles non stop from Marseilles to St. Louis, Senegal, thence 1,970 miles to Port Natal, Brazil. The return flight to St. Louis was made a few weeks later. What might be classed as partly Atlantic and partly Arctic was the survey flight carried out by Mr. John Grierson, who on July 20 set out from Rochester in a D.H. " Fox Moth " seaplane (" Gipsy Major ") to fly to Canada via the Arctic Air Route in order to try out the Marconi- Robinson " homing " wireless equipment. A mishap in Iceland delayed him a few weeks, but he eventually reached Ottawa on August 30. Two expeditions went to the Antarctic, one led by Lin coln Ellsworth and the other by Rear-Admiral Byrd. The former intended to make a flight in a Northrop " Gamma," piloted by Mr. Berndt Balchen, over the South Pole from Deception Island to the Bay of Whales, but at the time of writing it is not known whether this feat has been accom plished. The latter employed an Autogiro, and in Novem ber carried out important flights from Little America. During last year the Pacific was twice conquered—and claimed one victory for itself. Early in January six " Consolidated " flying boats of the U.S. Navy?, under the command of Lt.-Com. McGinnis, flew non-stop in forma tion from San Francisco to Honolulu (2,100 miles) in 24 hours 19 minutes. On October 21 Sir Charles Kingsford Smith, accompanied by Capt. T. Taylor, left Brisbane in his Lockheed " Altair " (Pratt and Whitney "Wasp") and flew 1,521 miles to Suva, Fiji. After a slight delay
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