Flights

"On to Ostia" cried posters on the walls of Mussolinized Rome. Patriotic Italians obeyed gladly, went down to Ostia at the mouth of the river Tiber. The thousands who did not have official tickets of admission to the area of goodview were urged by bayonets to herd themselves a mile up the beach. Punctually at the appointed hour, a speck accompanied by lesser specks appeared in the air. . . . Commander Francesco de Pinedo had completed his 26,000-mile, four-continent (Europe, Africa, South America, North America) flight in the Santa Maria II.

The first man to shake Signor de Pinedo's hand and to plant a kiss upon Signor de Pinedo's cheek was Premier Benito Mussolini, august upon a barge on the Tyrrhenian Sea. The people on the beach, taking their cue, applauded loudly, cheered lustily.

When asked about his future plans, Commander de Pinedo said: "I am a soldier at my government's orders."

Pleasure Trip. With his valet and two Dutch pilots,. Van Lear Black, chairman of the board of the Baltimore Sun, left Amsterdam, Holland, last week in a Fokker monoplane to fly to the Dutch East Indies. Leisurely, he hopped to Budapest--thence to Constantinople, Aleppo, Bagdad. . . . Crash & Fire, Three miles from Le Bourget (Paris air port) a heavily loaded biplane floundered down upon a wheat field, smashed its landing gear. There was an ear-splitting explosion, followed by the crackle of flames. From each side of the plane leaped two burning figures. They rolled in the wheat, saving their lives. Thus, ended the brief flight of Capt. Georges Pelletier Doisy and his navigator, M. Gonin, who had set out to break, by flying 4,400 miles from Paris to India, the world's non-stop record (held by Flyers Chamberlin and Levine).

Byrd. At Roosevelt Field, Long Island, last week Commander Richard Evelyn Byrd's triple-motored Fokker monoplane was poised for a flight to Paris, waiting only for contrary winds and an Atlantic fog to go away. George O. Noville, Bert Acosta and Berndt Balchen were eager to climb aboard. . . . Meanwhile, despatches from Paris said that Lieutenant Drouhin was ready to fly to New York, hoping to meet Commander Byrd and crew in mid-Atlantic.