Flights & Flyers

Natal-Dakar. Although the South Atlantic has been flown many times from east to west, the eastward route has yet to yield passage to an airplane. Last week Jean Mermoz, pilot for Aeropostale, and two companions took off from Natal, Brazil, flew 16 hours, landed 350 mi. short of Dakar, Africa with a leaky oil line. Flyers and mail were picked up by the despatch boat Phocee, but the seaplane had to be abandoned. Mermoz recently flew the first westbound mail from Senegal to Natal, pioneering a prospective Aeropostale service (TIME, May 26).

"Flagpole Sitting." Capt. John O. Donaldson and Pilot Ole Oleson planned a flight to test the endurance of planes, not of pilots. At Roosevelt Field, L. I. a Stinson monoplane would be flown by relays of relief pilots sent aboard at intervals by a rope ladder dropped from the refuelling plane. The pilot being relieved would drop to earth with a parachute. Last week Director Gilbert G. Budwig of the aeronautics branch, Department of Commerce, refused to sanction the flight, refused to waive the rule requiring aircraft to remain 300 ft. apart in the air. He said: "It is a stunt, and an extremely dangerous stunt. The plan involves too much risk of human life to make any conceivable benefits which might be derived worth while. It would serve aviation no better than flagpole sitting for the same length of time."

Journey's End. In Santa Maria, Calif, last week, Major Charles Kingsford-Smith presented his world-girdling monoplane Southern Cross to Capt. G. Allan Hancock, wealthy banker and oil operator, who had bought and loaned the plane to him for the California-Australia flight of 1928. When the Southern Cross landed safely in Australia, Capt. Hancock cabled Major Kingsford-Smith full title to it. Capt. Hancock, who took up flying as a result of his association with the Southern Cross crew, later gave Santa Maria an airport, established there an air college.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.