6 APRIL 1929, Page 27

It is beyond doubt that an account of an aeroplane

venture across the Pacific—California to Honolulu and thence via the Fijis to Brisbane—will be both an inspiration and a guide to flying men, but we are rather of opinion that the proper place for all such accounts is the pages of a technical journal. About all of them, at all events for the general reader, there is and must be a somewhat monotonous sameness. At the same time, however, admiration for a very gallant exploit rightly insists that we should at least acknowledge the appearance of Squadron-Leader Kingsford-Smith's and Mr. C. T. P. Ulm's The Great Trans-Pacific Flight (Hutchinson, 12s. 6d.). At the time of writing both these brave airmen are missing, somewhere in the Australian desert.