English Princess Flying Across Ocean To Canada
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Is With Officers Royal Air Force In Spanning Ocean
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Princess Lowenstein-Wertheim Accompanies Captain Hamilton and Colonel Minchin In Trip With Ottawa As Goal
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By International News Service
The first trans-Atlantic airplane flight with a woman passenger is under way today.
The British Fokker monoplane St. Raphael, piloted by Capt.
Leslie Hamilton and Lieut. Col. Frederick F. Minchin, and carrying the 63-year-old Princess Lowenstein-Wertheim as a passenger, hopped off from Upavon Airdrome, Wiltshire, England, at 7:31 o'clock this morning (British Time) for Canada.
It is not certain whether the plane (if it negotiates the trans-ocean leg of the voyage successfully) will land at Ottawa or continue on to London, Ontario, for the $25,000 prize offered for the first non-stop flight from England to London, Ont.
The distance of the flight is roughly 3,200 miles.
It was understood the Princess carried plenty of clothing to wear upon her arrival in Canada.
Before entering the plane, the Princess fell upon her knees and received the archbishop's benediction.
Minchin is piloting the plane. Hamilton holds the post of navigator.
This is the third westward trans-Atlantic flight ever attempted. The first by
Charles Nungesser and Coli came to grief and the two French airmen were never found. The second, which was attempted by two German junkers planes, ended in failure when storms compelled the pilots of both airplanes to turn back.
Advices early this afternoon told of the St. Raphael passing over Ireland, the latest telegrams indicating that the plane was passing over the Atlantic from County Galway.
Weather conditions were reported favorable for flying over the North Atlantic steamer lane.
Captain Hamilton and Colonel Minchin first planned to leave earlier and the plane was taken from its hangar at 5 o'clock, and wheeled onto the runway for the take-off.
The gasoline tanks had been filled last night, and all preparations made for the flight. After looking over their plane, the fliers retired, with instructions to be called shortly after 3 o'clock this morning.
The weather was cloudy, and a heavy mist overhung the field as last-minute preparations for the start were made. The visibility was poor, but the fliers were not to be deterred, and the engine of the plane was tuned up for the start.
A few moments before 7:30 o'clock, the three figures stepped over the side of the plane's fuselage into the cockpit, Hamilton and Minchin helping their titled passenger into her seat. The engine started with a roar, and the heavily-laden plane sped across the field.
The two fliers and the princess stole a march on half a dozen other fliers of different nationalities, who had hoped to be the first to cross the ocean from Europe to America by airplane.
Except for the fact that the flight is being made by three persons instead of one, the daring venture is similar to the early stages of the epochal flight of Col. Charles A. Lindbergh. Little news had been given out regarding the preparations for the flight, and few persons were aware that Minchin and Hamilton had the slightest intention of leaving this morning. It is very likely that no one but the fliers themselves, and perhaps a few intimates, had the least suspicion that the Princess Lowenstein would be a passenger in the plane on its hazardous trip.
The hop-off thrilled all England as news of the undertaking became generally known. The nation had waited patiently for the long-delayed hop-off of Captain Frank Courtney in his Dornier whale, and upon him had been pinned the hopes of England to equal the achievements of America in the new-found art of trans-Atlantic flying. The sudden and dramatic start of Minchin and Hamilton met with tremendous favor, and unspoken messages of Godspeed were on every tongue.
Captain Hamilton and Colonel Minchin hope to arrive on the American continent tomorrow morning. They had first expected to fly to New York, but an eleventh-hour change in plans caused them to decide to head for Ottawa.
Olean Times - Wednesday, August 31, 1927
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