Van Lear Black, the man who proved the potential for long-haul passenger flights
When he landed in Hong Kong, on a stopover from London to Tokyo in 1930, he was said to be the world’s most widely travelled air passenger
Van Lear Black was said to be the world’s most widely travelled air passenger when he landed in Hong Kong on March 20, 1930. His custom-furnished, three-engine Fokker F.VII was reportedly the largest plane ever to have visited what was then called Kai Tack Aerodrome, and the local press were out in force to welcome him. After a brief chat, Black “dressed in a grey suit and wearing kid gloves” left his two pilots to do the talking and “proceeded to his rooms at the Peninsula Hotel”.
The arrival in Hong Kong of a private air passenger was quite something in 1930, for as The Hongkong Telegraph wistfully declared, “the privilege and excitement of a long pleasure trip in an aeroplane does not fall to the lot of everybody”.
Known as the “flying millionaire”, the retired American businessman and newspaper publisher had already been flown from Holland to Batavia (now Jakarta) and back in a single-engine Fokker F.VII, which he had chartered from the Dutch airline KLM. He then made a return trip from London to South Africa in a three-engine variant of the same aircraft – similar to that in which he had now arrived in Hong Kong. These were routes and distances that no commercial airline had yet flown and Black’s mission was in part, he was quoted as saying, to “show that it was possible to encircle the globe by air in safety”.
The Hong Kong stopover was part of a flight from London to Tokyo, via Europe, the Middle East, India, Southeast Asia and China, and he left for Shanghai on March 24, reaching Tokyo on April 7. Black, his pilots, his secretary and their dismantled aircraft then travelled to San Francisco by steamship, before flying to his home city, Baltimore.
Having helped prove the potential for long-haul commercial passenger flights, with more such ventures planned, the frequent flier fell from his private yacht off the New Jersey coast that August, aged 54. Four aeroplanes, several coastguard vessels and a 200-metre-long Zeppelin airship – the USS Los Angeles – were sent to search for him, but his body was never found.
Explore Europe by train with the Eurail Global Pass
The Eurail Global Pass – known as the Eurail Pass from 1959 to 2007 – has added a couple of new countries and railway services for 2020, and upped the minimum validity from three days to four for a relatively small price increase. Latvia and Estonia are now covered, as is travel on the Thello sleeper train between Paris and Venice, and the Thello day service from Milan to Marseilles, via Genoa and Nice. This latter route is convenient if you are flying Cathay Pacific non-stop from Hong Kong to Milan to get to the Italian Riviera and beyond, or to the French Riviera and Provence.
The annual Europe by Eurail is in its 44th edition for 2020, but was published too late to feature Latvia and Estonia, and doesn’t even feature last year’s additions – Britain, Lithuania and Macedonia. For full, more current Eurail Global Pass details, visit eurail.com and download the Eurail app.
Tokyo’s Haneda Airport to get two new hotels this spring
Tokyo’s Haneda Airport will be opening a multipurpose facility called Haneda Airport Garden this spring. Two new hotels will be part of the project: the luxury, 160-room Villa Fontaine Premier Haneda Airport and the mid-range, 1,717-room Villa Fontaine Grand Haneda Airport.
Deal of the week – a third night free in Malaysia
For bookings made by this MondayJanuary 20, Lotus Tours is offering a third night free at the cheapest hotels offered with its two-night packages to the Malaysian cities of Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Langkawi, Kota Kinabalu and Kuching. Prices range from HK$1,799 to HK$1,899 and while the hotels are not much to write home about, with the inclusion of flights via Singapore with Singapore Airlines and SilkAir, and daily breakfast, this is a great deal.
