N. G. Airmen
p. 12 · Read in the full issue
PILOTING a Fairey Fox aeroplane in the London-Melbourne Centenary Air Race, Mr. Ray Parer, the New Guinea airman, with Mr. G. E. Hems worth as co-pilot, took off from Milden hall, England, at 6.39 a.m. on October 20, for Australia.
Arriving at Abbeville (France) the following day, the aviators were detained for several hours through a damaged radiator, but restarted in the Race from Le Bourget, near Paris. They returned some hours later owing to further radia tor trouble, and withdrew from the race.
They are flying home and were reported at Athens in mid-November.
Interviewed at Le Bourget, the airmen intimated that they would continue on to Melbourne as non-contestants, and then fly from Australia to New Guinea. Mr.
Parer said he suspected that they were victims of sabotage, as they found the ’plane’s sparking plugs had been clogged with oil. Before leaving France, he lodged a formal request for investigation with the Royal Aero Club, England.
Ray Parer and G. E. Hemsworth