CAPETOWN, South Africa, Feb. 8, 1933 (UP) -- Two British royal air force fliers brought their big monoplane down at Walvis Bay, on the west coast of Africa 800 miles north of Capetown today, after setting a new world's straight-line distance record on a flight from London.
Squadron Leader Oswald R. Gayford and Flight Lieutenant Gilbert e. Nicholettes, who left Cranwell Airdrome, England, on Monday at 7:15 a. m., landed at Walvis Bay at 4:40 p. m. today after a flight of approximately 5175 miles without a stop.
They thus exceeded by 163 miles (by unofficial figures) the previous record of 5,012 miles set by Russell Boardman and John Polando on their flight from the United States to Istanbul, Turkey, in 1931.
The British plane was a huge, specially constructed Fairey-Napier.
Gayford had been experimenting with the ship for over a year. Tests included a non-stop flight of 2,857 miles from Cranwell to Abu Sueir, Egypt.
The great monoplane has a wing spread of 82 feet, a fuselage 48 feet 6 inches long, and is 12 feet high. Tanks inside the wing hold over 1,000 gallons of gasoline. The machine is equipped with a "robot" pilot, a gyroscopic device which will hold a plane on its true course when sufficient height for safety has been attained.
