FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1936
1936 - 1244.PDF
MAY 14, 1936. FLIGHT. 5i3 % BY covering the 6,700 miles between Gravesend and Cape town in 3 days. 6 hr. 26 min. Mrs. Amy Mollison has broken the record for that journey (set up by Fit. Lt. " Tommy " Rose in a Miles Falcon Six) by n hr. 9 min., flying a Percival Gull with a De Havilland Gipsy Six engine. Whereas Fit. Lt. Rose took the East Coast route down Africa, Mrs. Mollison kept to the West Coast, saving about 700 miles. As we go to press Mrs. Mollison is fast nearing home on the return journey. Perhaps the most laudable feature of the outward flight was the 2,000-mile crossing of the Sahara Desert, flying blind and by night. A Marconi A.D.5r/20 installation kept her in touch with the world. Mrs. Mollison was prevented from keeping to the schedule she had set heTself by the fact that inadequate aerodromes made it impossible for the Gull to take off with full tanks. A TO the CAPE in 78 HOURS Mrs. Mollison Beats the Existing Time by 11 hrs. 9 mins. More Laurels for the Percival Gull and D.H. Gipsy Six TUES. ••asannaang WED. |ARR.5-3IPM. Th2 distribution in the Gull of the tanks which gavs a 2,400-mile ranja. This map offers a comparison between the routes of Mrs Mollison and Fit. Lt. " Tommy " Rose, the latter being indicated by a thin line. 270-mile detour to Cotonu also added considerably to her time. Viscount Swinton, Secretary of State for Air, sent the lol- lowing message to Mrs. Mollison at Capetown: " Hearty con gratulations on your excellent flight." At ten o'clock on Sunday night Mrs. Mollison took off from Capetown on the return trip. She was due at Salisbury at ten o'clock on Monday, but, missing that city, landed at Umtali on the eastern border of Southern Rhodesia. She left three hours behind ner schedule and arrived at Mpika, Northern Rhodesia, at 4.40 on Monday afternoon. At 8.45 a.m. on Tuesday she had reached Mbeya, Tanganyika. The equipment oi the Gipsy Six Gull included the following : B.T H. magneto, Claudel-Hobson carburetter, K.L.G. plugs, Tecalemit oil filters, Weyburn camshaft,. Smith's engine instru ments, Fairey metal airscrew, Shell fuel, Castrol oil, Smith's F.4 compass, Kollsman altimeter, Sperry artificial horizon and direc tional gyro, Maiconi short-wave wireless equipment, Kotax generator, starter and hattfry, Demec navigation lights, Vickers landing lights and three-way petrol taps, Percival petrol tanks and undercarriage, Bendix brakes, Duniop (ront tyies and wheels, Palmer tail wheel and tyre, Titanine dope, Rumbold upholstery, Splintex windscreen and windows, Bamberger spruce, and Flexo plywood.
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
