Cranwell, Feb. 6.
"An official British attempt to break "the world's" long-distance ying record, held "by the. United States, was begun to-day when a Royal' Air' Force. giant, monoplane took off from hereon a. non-sto fight to Cape Town at 7.15 o'clock this morning.
The machine, a huge, specially constructed, streamlined "Fairey Napier, is piloted by," two highly teamed Royal Air 'Force oticers, Squadron-Leader Oswald Toberi Gayford, DPC, and. Flight-Lieutenant Gubert Nicholetts, Men and iaehine have been working together at intervals for over a year. Tryouts and' training. included a nonstop trip from Cranwell to Abu Suelr, Egypt, a distance of 2,857 miles, in October, 1931.
'The present world' record was set up by the American airmen, Messrs. Itussel Boardman and Joh Polando, on July 28-80, 1931, when mey" flew from New York to Anlanbuh,'8,008 kilometres, or 5,012 nailes. The distance between Cran-Well and Cape Town is about 6,000 tiles which Gayford and Niehotetts expect to cover in around 60 hours. Tewas recalled that the same airmen and the same machine were trained fand prepared for the attempt February, 1931, but a period of bad weather forced them to postpone the Aight until. favourable conditions prevailed over the greater part the recto, With a wings pan of 82 feet, the great monoplane hus a fuselage 48 ft, 6 in. long and is 12 feet in height. Throughout its span, the wing varies in thickness and tanks were loaded with gasoline, weighing nearly. four tons. The Machine: is fitted "with a" single Napier Lion engine. of 380 horse-ower specially tuned by Royal Air Force mechanic ed by the airmen
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.