LORD MAYOR’S FLIGHT.

Had matters gone according to plan, this machine should have left Belfast at ten o’clock this morning, bringing with it the Lord Mayor of Belfast (Alderman Sir William Turner), the High Sheriff (Councillor M. C. Mclaurin), the ex-high Sheriff (Alderman Duff, M.P.), and Sir Sefton Brancker. But owing to the state of the weather the start was not actually made till 12.17 p.m., and, as the operation of rising was extremely difficult on a ground sodden by fifty-eight hours’ rain, it was decided that only two passengers, the Lord Mayor and the High Sheriff, should go aboard.

It was 2.45 p.m. when the machine landed successfully here, and Sir William Turner, Councillor Mclaurin, and Alan Cobham were cheered by the little crowd that had been waiting about three hours to welcome them. By then the rain had almost ceased, but immense banks of black clouds masted to the north-west gave an eloquent impression of the sort of journey that had been made. But it appeared from the statements made by those who had gone through it that the conditions were not so bad as had been supposed by the party in waiting on the Aintree aerodrome. “I have enjoyed it immensely,” declared Sir William Turner, who is, indeed, no stranger to travelling by air. Later Sir William told me that, though the conditions at the other side were so bad that at one time all idea of setting off had been practically abandoned, matters improved towards noon. The Lord Mayor had treated the journey as a practised aviator, and was able, from his notes, to give particulars of its various stages. The Isle of Man was crossed over at 12.30, and the English coast reached at one, and Barrow passed at 2.5. Conditions were very much worse at this side than over yonder, and the passengers had some uncomplimentary remarks to make about the dense masses of Lancashire smoke, beside which the natural mistiness sank into comparative insignificance. As for Cobham, performer of so many wonderful “stunts” and air journeys over numerous countries, this was merely a little trip all in the normal day’s work.