Hinkler Rivalled

Many a woman has found notoriety in "flying" record distances--with an experienced man pilot at the controls. Many another woman has announced plans for spectacular solo flights--which have never materialized. Hence, last week, the British Empire and then the world at large became aware with some astonishment that Amy Johnson, 22, golden-haired secretary, graduate of Sheffield University, was performing a prodigious feat in her flight from Croydon, England, toward Port Darwin, Australia.

Miss Johnson's further objective was to beat the record of Flyer Harolc J. L. ("Bert") Hinkler who flew the same distance in 152 days (TIME. March 5, 1928).-- All Britain hailed that flight--done in an 875-lb. Avro Avian at total cost of $250 --as epochal in the history of aviation. Enthusiastic statesmen proclaimed that Hinkler "had outclassed Lindbergh."

Flying a 90 h. p. Gipsy-Moth which had seen considerable taxi-service in England, Miss Johnson covered more than half the 11,500-mi. route well ahead of Hinkler's schedule before mishap overtook her at Rangoon. Burma. There she mistook the landing field and taxied into a ditch. After two days lost in making repairs the girl pushed on through driving rains to Bangkok, 3,000 miles and four days from her goal. Yet perhaps the worst of the journey lay ahead of her: the perilous passage over Siam jungle and Java swamp, the 700-mi. water jump from the Indian Archipelago to Port Darwin.

Amy Johnson had never before flown farther than the 200 miles from Hull to London. Subsisting mainly on sandwiches and fruit en flight, sleeping "an average of three hours a day," borrowing a change of clothing at each stop (in lieu of baggage), the girl has completely captured British fancy.

* Of about 20 attempts, four London-Australia Sir flights Ross besides Smith and Hinkler's crew of were five, 30 completed: days; 1926, 1919, Sir Alan Cobham, 62 days: 1928, Capt. William Newton Lancaster and Mrs. Keith Miller, 32 days; 1929, Lieut. J. Moir, crashed 100 miles from Port Darwin.

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