BY AIR TO EAST INDIES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 3, 5 January 1931, Page 5

BY AIR TO EAST INDIES.

DUTCH SCHEME FOR SERVICE.

DR. ECKENER TO STUDY ROUTE,

Disasters, not even the most appalling of them, have ever served to halt or to check progress in development of rapid transportation. If they had done so, we would still be travelling in ox-carts, instead of railways, steamers, motor cars, aeroplanes and airships. ■ Undeterred by the RlOl catastrophe, a Dutch group is considering the practicability -of connecting Holland with its Dutch East Indies colonies by air with Zeppelins. At the instance of this group, Dr. Hugo Eckener, head of the Zeppelin Works in Friedrichshafen, as famous a meteorologist' as he is commander of the Graf Zeppelin, is going to Java to make a careful meteorological study . of the route, and of the weather conditions in the East Indies. He is scheduled to sail for Batavia early in the New Year,

The contemplated route, we understand, is down the Rhone Valley' to eastward of Marseilles, thence over the Mediterranean to Alexandria, across Egypt and out on the Red Sea south of the Suez Canal.* Then over the Red Sea and down the coast of Africa" to British or' Italian Somaliland, and from there, directly eastward on a line south of the southern coastline of Sumatra to Java. A vast amount of meteorological data, covering many years, have • been submitted by the Dutch to Dr. .Eckener. This has so impressed him that he has signified his willingness to make a personal study of the route and conditions. Steamers take Tip to 21 days to make the trip. An airship could make it in about five days. One refuelling station, and two or thr»e emergency mooring masts en route, are considered necessary. Dr. Eckener may stop in Ejrvpt either going or returning. , He will make a particular study of air currents and weather in British and Italian Somaliland. in order to determine the most suitable place for refuelling, and for the required emergency masts. A large terminal air dock or hangar near Batavia is a part of the scheme. If Dr. Eckener finds from his survey that it is practicable to use Zeppelins for regular service on that .route, it \is said that a Dutch company with > a capital of £2,000,000 will be organised.