(See front cover)
The great doors of the Royal Air Force hangars opened wide at 3 a. m. One sleek machine after another was wheeled out. The deep-throated roar of their engines being tuned up fairly shook the field. Since midnight they had been converging on the new R. A. F. airdrome at Mildenhall, 60 miles from London. Over the field and its floodlights hung pitch-black night.
Motors warmed, the 20 planes were lined up in two rows for the start of the greatest air race in aviation history. Chattering in little groups were flyers, mechanics, officials, men in dungarees, women in evening dress from London. At 6:30 a. m. Sir Alfred Bower, Acting Lord Mayor of London, gave the starting signal.
First away were Jim and Amy (Johnson) Mollison, 12-to-1 favorites in their De Havilland Comet. Two minutes later Roscoe Turner and Clyde Pangborn took off in their big Boeing, just as an orange-red sun edged over the horizon. One by one the rest took the air and headed south. Last off, 16 minutes after the Mollisons, was Capt. T. Neville Stack, carrying a complete motion picture of the start.
On the sidelines "Tony" Fokker looked up from the technical journal he had been reading in time to see Stack's plane disappear over the horizon. Finish of the race: Melbourne, Australia, 11,323 miles away. Preparations.
Month on long month of intensive preparations by the aviation industry throughout the world had preceded the race's start last week. Represented by each entry were countless technicalities, endless research, details, delays, many a heartbreak. Of the 64 original entries, more than two-thirds had withdrawn. Night before the start Colonel James C. Fitzmaurice, Irish transatlantic flyer, had been disqualified when his U. S.-built Bellanca special, Irish Swoop, proved overweight.
Two days before the race the Mollisons had come near being "scratched," when they broke a tailskid.
Day before the start Their Majesties and the Prince of Wales visited Mildenhall to give the flyers a royal sendoff. Queen Mary set foot in a plane for the first time when she inspected the U. S.-built Douglas entered by Royal Dutch Airlines (K. L. M.). Wales showed greatest interest in a small U. S.-built Monocoupe entered by John Polando and John H. ("Utica Jack") Wright. From Roscoe Turner the Prince received a model of the Boeing 247-0 on which the U. S. pinned its highest hopes for victory.
To the Mollisons Their Majesties gave a letter to be delivered to their third son, Henry, Duke of Gloucester, in Melbourne, halfway around the world. Race. A hundred years ago this month a tough little band of Tasmanian pioneers rowed up the Yarra River, picked a spot which their leader, John Batman, decided would be "a good place for a village." John Batman's "village" became the city of Melbourne (pop. 1,000,000), which, with the State of Victoria, is this year celebrating its centennial.
Features of the celebration are an All-Australia Exhibition, an agricultural show, dedication of a National War Memorial, Henley regatta, Australian Derby, many another bigtime sporting event. More important was the arrival in Melbourne last week of the Duke of Gloucester aboard the cruiser Sussex.