The long-distance aviation question many are asking themselves is how the heck they'd cope with a non-stop flight from Sydney to London or New York. The question being asked on the front page on this day in 1928 was how soon such a trip could be done by airship.
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The world was caught up in the excitement of luxury trans-continental flight by airship during the late 1920s, and no more so than after the Graf Zeppelin completed its return trans-Atlantic trip and landed back in Germany.
Hundreds of thousands of people swarmed the airfield to greet it and "police had to use knuckle dusters to restore order". The hope that Australians could also greet these giants of the sky was tempered by British aeronautical expert Dennistoun Burney who warned it could take at least six years before an airship would have the necessary speed so a regular service to Australia could be established.
That ship was hoped to be the R101, or something similar. The R101 was a giant airship being built in Britain with the aim of Australian service. As the article on the front page said, when it was completed it would be bigger in bulk than the Mauretania - one of the largest ocean liners in the world.
Very sadly, the R101 crashed in France in 1930 on its way to India and exploded killing 48 crew members. It was a heavy blow to the confidence people had in airship travel. That confidence would be shattered for good in 1937 when the Hindenburg exploded in New Jersey.