AERONAUTICS: Moth Man

Harold J. L. (“Bert”) Hinkler may be counted on to do the unexpected. He did it again last week. Three days after the British Ambassador effected Hinkler’s release by Brazilian authorities, who had arrested him for flying “out of bounds” (TIME. Nov. 30), Hinkler was out over the South Atlantic in his little 90-h. p. Puss Moth, alone as Lindbergh. Behind him lay the port of Natal; ahead of him a 1,600-mi. span to Africa which no airplane had yet flown eastward. In moonlight darkened by occasional squalls Pilot Hinkler flew 22 hr., sat down at the little colony of Bathhurst, British Gambia, with an hour’s fuel in his tanks. He refuelled, flew on to Dakar. Why he undertook the hazardous flight, why he made his surprise flight from New York to Jamaica a month ago, Pilot Hinkler did not state.