was the last to edit Map showing Jean Batten route NZ to England
on Feb 20th, 2018 at 3:53 PM
Map showing Jean Batten route NZ to England
Original Filename: Jean_Batten_Scrapbook_6_Map.jpg (view)
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Original Image Type: image/pjpeg
Caption
From Jean Batten Scrapbook put together by Mrs Sim in 1930s when Jean Batten made her world breaking flight from New Zealand to England.
Originally published in the Weekly News 21 October 1936, p.10.
Tazjet
said Jean Batten's crash in Rome 1934
On 21st April 1934, Jean Batten took off from Marsailles, France & flew into a rain storm on her way to Rome. Owing to headwinds she did not arrive over Rome until around midnight. her Gipsy Moth registered G-AARB was coughing & spluttering from fuel starvation. She flew low trying to pick out somewhere to land . The moon was due to set at 1.21am, but instead she blundered into 200 metre high naval radio masts at Sao Paulo, These ripped off the wings of her plane.The official version is a pair of spare wings were found in a hanger and the Italian air force fitted these"spare wings" to her aircraft rebuilding it so she could re-enter the race.
Upon investigating the British civil register, no DH Gipsy Moth could be found which was sold to Italy that could have been the donor aircraft.
It turns out that the italian aircraft manufacturer Caproni built the DH Gipsy Moth under license near Milan as the Ca.100, so it is theorised the Italians cannabalized one of their Caproni Ca.100 aircraft to rebuild G-AARB for Jean Batten. Given the geopolitical rivalry between Britain &Italy in the 1930s, this fact may have been hushed up by Batten herself to avoid sparking controversy. The destruction of G-AARB in a hanger fire on February 1940 may have been the final cover up of the Italian connection, with Batten's flight.
Tags: G-AARB, masts, Rome, Jean Batten