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Show M M FLIGHT American Naval Officer to Undertake Most Pretentious Preten-tious of Air Journeys. (Chicago Tribune Special Service.) WASHINGTON-, Aug. IS. An American naval officer will be the first aviator to fly across the Pacific ocean, if plans being be-ing worked out bv tho navy department mature successfully. Commander Reed, who made the first flight across the Atlantic, la slated to head the Pacific expedition. The flight will be from San Francisco to Manila and thence to the mainland of Asia. Compared with the Atlantic flight, this undertaking will be gigantic. The distance flown will ba nearly twice that in the case of tho air voyage to Burope. Tentative plans call for a flight in four legs to Manila, comprising com-prising a total distance of more than 7500 miles. The first leg will be San Francisco to Honolulu. 2028 miles: eeeond leg, Honolulu Hono-lulu to Midway island, 1100 miles; third leg, Midway island to Guam, 2000 miles; Guam to Manila, 2500 miles. This course follows the pacific cable lines, stations of which are established on Guam and Midway Island. The plans are being perfected In tho utmost ut-most secrecy. It is known, however, that larger and more powerful naval airplanes than hitherto employed are beiner constructed con-structed especially for the Pacific flight. The same general plan will be followed as In tho crossing of tho Atlantic. Destroyers De-stroyers and all available light naval craft on the west coast and some additional vessels sent from the Panama canal and the Atlantic" fleet will be stationed at Intervals In-tervals to render assistance in event of mishap to the aviators. |