Word: hinkler
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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...from England to regain his oldtime speed record to Australia. He was not sighted again. Last week in the Pratomagno Woods near Florence, Italy a group of charcoal burners stumbled upon the wreckage of an airplane. About 30 feet away lay a body identified by clothing marks as Pilot Hinkler's. Propeller and engine of the plane were buried in the mountainside. The remainder of the ship was intact, including a full fuel tank...
...most popular planes for British hopping & skipping are the De Haviland Moths, "Puss" and "Gypsy." Harold J. L. ("Bert") Hinkler flew a Puss Moth on his startling South Atlantic hop last autumn. Last month James A. Mollison in a Gypsy hung up a new record (4 days, 17 hr., 19 min.) from England to Capetown, another well-pounded Empire race course. Britain's Amy Johnson and Peggy Salaman fly Moths. A Gypsy cruises at 90 m.p.h., a Puss a little faster. Reasons for Moth popularity: 1) British plane builders concentrate on commercial & military types; 2) with little competition...
...those who wonder why Pilot Hinkler suddenly popped out of his long obscurity to hop oceans, Editor Grey reveals a story: Few years ago Hinkler financed the building of a new small tandem-engined amphibian named the "Ibis," with funds made from his Australia flight. Unable to interest British capital he came to the U. S. in 1930. found capital even scarcer. Then a plan to make money, or attract backers, by a spectacular flight in a Lockheed fell through. Finally he drew from his small balance of life savings, bought the Puss Moth in Canada, got enough odd jobs...
Besides Pilot Hinkler's evident ability as a distance flyer and navigator. Editor Grey portrays him as a smart inventor but a poor businessman; an extraordinary testpilot but utterly lacking in tact? "quite capable of going to a managing director and telling him that if he really wants to make money out of aeroplanes the best thing he can do is pension off his chief designer just for the sake of keeping him away from the Design Office...
...Pilot Hinkler's tactlessness alone would be almost enough to endear him to Editor Grey who loves nothing more than to bait the Air Ministry and infuriate the Industry, with which he occasionally enjoys keen unpopularity. Intensely patriotic (suspected of Francophobia), a firm believer in British aviation, he loathes dunderheadedness