The Air Ace Comes

To Fanning Island

Fanning Island, 1,150 miles south of Honolulu, nearly got into the air age in 1936, when an emergency strip was pre pared for, but was not used by, the late Sir Charles Kingsford Smith.

TUVENTY-SIX years later, another A strip was laid down on the island for the use of either British or US planes at the time of the H-bomb tests on neighbouring Christmas Island.

However, it turned out that the strip was not needed at that time, and it was not until Saturday, July 16, that a plane landed on it, thus becoming the first plane to touch down on the island.

The event occurred at 11.10 a.m.

The plane was a twin-engine Piper Aztec, owned by a Honolulu corpora tion, Pan Pacific Aero Inc., which is run by Dr. Martin J. Vitousek.

The plane was piloted from Hono lulu by a retired United Airlines pilot, Captain Felix P. Jones, who has 27,000 hours to his credit. Dr.

Vitousek acted as navigator, although he is an accomplished pilot himself.

Also on board were Mr. Frank J.

Callender, assistant director of the University of Hawaii Research Cor

poration, and Dr. Vitousek’s wife Paige.

The flight took seven hours and 10 minutes, but would have taken far less had the crew not “buzzed”

Washington Island (75 miles to the north-west) for the sake of the manager of the copra plantation on that island, Mr. William Frew, who had just returned there, married, from furlough.

Washington Island, with a total land area of three square miles, is held in fee simple by Fanning Island Plantations Ltd., a subsidiary of Burns Philp and Co. Ltd., of Sydney.

Fanning Island, which has a land area of 13 square miles, is also owned by Fanning Island Plantations Ltd.— except for a 40-acre site on which Cable and Wireless Ltd. operated a repeater cable station from 1902 to December, 1963.

Crown Land

The 40-acre cable station area is Crown land oyer which the Govern ment of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony has control. However, the buildings on the land—the cable station and former employees’ houses —are owned by Cable and Wireless, and these have been up for sale for 5A150,000, or best offer, since early 1964.

It was an interest in the cable station property on the part of the University of Hawaii and the Scripps Institute that brought the Piper Aztec to Fanning Island on July 16.

Captain Jones said that the strip was “very much better” than many he had had to use in Hawaii and else where.

The strip is known locally as Fils Field. This is both a play on the Christian name of the local manager of Fanning Island Plantations Ltd., Mr. Phil Palmer, and a name created from the initials of the company.

In a note to PIM from Fanning Island on the arrival of the Piper Aztec, Mr. Palmer indicated (but did not say in so many words) that the

University of Hawaii and the Scrip Institute were well advanced negotiations to acquire the cat station property.

Mr. Palmer said; “When the Ui versity of Hawaii and Scripps Institu get down to business, the present 2 strip will get a lot of use. But pla are being laid for a much larger lan ing ground nearer the old cab station that will be able to hand heavy cargo aircraft.

“The Honolulu-Fanning direct a link is a great thing for this islan and Dr. Vitousek’s skill and initiatr are warmly regarded here.”

Two of the buildings on the former cable station property Fanning Island.