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The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848-1954) (about)
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Cite: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article10974066
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WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 24, 1934
HATS OFF TO THE COMET!
Melbourne saw history being made yesterday at 200 miles an hour. The scarlet Comet which dived over Flemington at a terrific speed,
giving victory in the Centenary Air Race to C. W. A. Scott and T. Camp- bell Black, was a symbol of the new air age. Of what that symbol really means the world is still but dimly conscious; but in fewer than three days the conquest of time and dis- tance has outstripped the imagina- tion and left men and women won- dering what the future holds. In an age of extraordinary mechanical progress one takes many things for granted; but this epic flight half- way across the world seems too re- markable for analysis. Fewer than three days before the aviators looked out at Melbourne they had been in London; and during that interval of fewer than 72 hours they had crossed Europe, Asia, and Aus- tralia, flown blind through storms and darkness, ridden above moun- tain tops, and skimmed over the surface of seas; they had looked more closely at death than earth bound men and women do in a life- time.
Hats off to Scott and Black! They have written their names in the scarlet of their Comet on the page of history which is reserved for great adventurers, for men whom it is not sentimental even in 1934 to call heroes. They may take their place with the great Elizabethans who, in an age of expansion by sea, sailed round the unknown world In small ships and lost their lives in quest of the magic way to China through the Arctic wastes. If those Elizabethan adventurers were ro- mantic, what is this new tale of daring whose heroes, with superb impudence, snapped their fingers at Time? Their flight, apart from its significance as a milestone in the history of aviation, is an epic of adventure which men who are now
young will remember when they sit
by the fire in their old age, although the children of another generation be bored. For if the conquest of speed be maintained at its present rate an air journey to England in three days will be a commonplace; and Australia, that vast land over the edge of beyond, will become part of a great world metropolis.
Already, as Melbourne saw yes- terday, amazing progress has been made. In the 'sixties Melbourne was 70 to 100 days out from England; a few years ago it was six weeks dis- tant; and in 1926 Sir Alan Cobham opened up a new vista by reducing the time to 27 days. Sir Charles Kingsford-Smith'made it 12 days in 1929; and two years later Scott flew to England in 10 days. But the air race has made those flights, valu- able as they were as pioneering achievements, seem like leisurely strolls by air. Where the pioneers walked, Scott and Black ran. Per- haps the finest evaluation of their victory is found in the lot of the other competitors. Some of them were still in Europe when Darwin revealed itself like the Promised Land to the weary victors. Even the mammoth Dutch airliner, flown by the light-hearted Parmentler, was hundreds of miles behind. Flying-Officer Gilman and Mr. J. K. C. Baines had crashed to a burning death. The nearest Ameri- cans were a continent away. The whole world opened its eyes in
amazement.
In a representative International race a British aeroplane, flown by British aviators, has triumphed. That is a selfish reason for jubila- tion, and the result cannot fail to enhance the prestige of Britain in the air. Thus Sir Macpherson Robertson's hopes have been rea- lised. The others, however, flew bravely and well. They are all in the vanguard of the new age, Par- mentler perhaps most of all. For he rode the skies in this great race like the unruffled pilot of a tourist airliner, allowing his passengers, between chicken sandwiches, to watch three continents unfolding beneath them. Could any more striking contrast be imagined than the weariness and exhaustion of Scott and Black and the pleasant excitement of Parmentier's passen- gers, who flew in the world's most notable race as tourists? All these men and women have been true to a fine tradition; and, although two lives already have been lost, a great advance has been made, lifting the horizon to an astonishing future.