DO-X at Last

The horseshoe that hangs in the navigation room of the great Dornier flying boat DO-X finally justified its presence last week when the ship roared across the South Atlantic and landed prettily at Natal, Brazil. It was seven months after she had set out from Lake Constance. Switzerland. The flight from Bolama, Portuguese Guinea, West Africa, whither the boat bestirred itself a month ago. was made in three jumps: a short one to the Cape Verde Islands where it remained nearly a week; a long and creditable one (1,400 mi.) to Fernando Noronha Island, 200 mi. off the Brazilian mainland: and an easy hop to Natal, strategic point for many a transatlantic flight. Besides Capt. Friedrich Christiansen the DO-X carried twelve persons, including the Portuguese Admiral Gago Coutinho.

The DO-X is to remain in Natal about three weeks for overhauling and visit Rio de Janeiro for about a month before proceeding to the U. S. The famed elaborate furnishings, which had been pulled out of the cabin and shipped by steamer, will be restored in South America.

Some comment was aroused last week by the report from Germany that Designer Dornier contemplated replacing the plane's twelve Curtiss Conqueror engines with six oil-burning engines now under development. To that the Curtiss-Wright Corp. promptly replied by displaying cablegrams of congratulation from Designer Dornier and Capt. Christiansen on the performance of the motors.

General Italo Balbo, whose famed triads leaped the Atlantic to Natal last January, was nearly drowned last week in the Bay of Naples when his seaplane struck a submerged buoy in taking off, and sank. Two months ago the general's adjutant, Col. Umberto Maddalena, and two flyers of the squadron were killed when a propeller snapped and tore through the cabin of their plane (TIME, March 30).

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