CROSSING THE PACIFIC.

The route for the British flight may be divided into the following five sections:

1. Calshot to Karachi; 4,890½ miles.

2. Karachi to Tokio; 5,879½ miles.

3. Tokio to Vancouver, 5,417½ miles.

4. Vancouver to Ottawa; 2,127 miles.

5. Ottawa to London; 4,939½ miles.

As far as Tokio the flight will be de die in diem except for seven short stops, none of more than two days. A ten days’ stay, however, is allowed for at Tokio. During this time the machine will be overhauled, and another engine put in for the most difficult section of the whole route – the flight, alternately over sea and land, by the Kurile Islands, Kamchatka, the Aleutian Isles, and Alaska to Vancouver. The greater part of this section of 5,417½ miles, which may be regarded as the Transpacific section, is fog-infested and uninhabited. Fog is likely to prove a serious obstacle in this region, as 60 per cent. of the days of the month are foggy.

It may be noted here that Squadron-leader Maclaren differs from all other airmen who have attempted long-distance flights in using an amphibian machine – that is, a flying boat with a land under-carriage, which can be withdrawn above the keel line. Accordingly, instead of being at the mercy of the varying surfaces of many little-used and poorly maintained aerodromes, he will be able to rely chiefly on water-landings in sheltered harbours or bays. The land under-carriage will, however, be dispensed with altogether on the Japan-vancouver section. In place of the under-carriage, the aeroplane will carry Lieut.-colonel L. E. Broome, a mining engineer, who knows these inhospitable regions well.