AIR CLIPPER.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 238, 8 October 1934, Page 9

AIR CLIPPER.

NEW TRANSPORT ERA

PAN-AMERICAN SYSTEM.

15,000 MILES IN FORTNIGHT,

| (By a Special Correspondent.) | Aboard Brazilian Clipper, over the Caribbean Sea, August 30. Another world record smashed! A new era in transportation! Buenos Ayres to New York in five days .with 15 passengers, a crew of six, heavy baggage, equipment and food supplies. This is being written in the great Brazilian clipper seaplane, 0000 ft above the vast waters'of the Caribbean Sea. We are still 1500 miles from Miami, but 110 onft has the slightest doubt about 1 arriving there 011 schedule —having seen | its unfailing performance day after I day—in time to catch the night 'plane for New York, completing the run from Argentine, more than S7OO miles on the I route followed. We are all thrilled and inwardly excited by the certain prospect of this great achievement. We are proud that America again sets the pace. We are applauding the Pan-American' airway system. Only we who are aboard this giant of the air, who have made the I trip from Miami to Buenos Ayres and return, can fully appreciate the signifiI cance of this great step forward in world travel. This morning, at 4.30, our party hurried from our hotel in Port of Spain, on the island of Trinidad, to the sea base where the gigantic 'plane lay in readiness for sunrise and the hop-off 011 its 1900-mile flight to Florida. As soon as the first rays of light began to disclose the outlines of the ships in the harbour, the 'plane's big motors began to roar, and we were off. Eight Countries Visited. Just visualise what has been done on this maiden trip of the Brazilian clipper. In two weeks from the time we left Miami to the day of our return we will have covered nearly 15,000 miles, travelling only by day. Two days were spent in Rio de Janiero and two days in Buenos Aires. En route we visited eight countries — Haiti, Puerto Kico, Trinidad, British Guiana, Dutch Guiana, Brazil, Uruguay. Argentine. We flew over or near five others—Cuba, San Domingo, Martinique and French Guiana. And in this time we were received and entertained by the Presidents or Governors of all the countries whose shores we touched. Enormous crowds welcomed us at every port, while speakers dwelt on the meaning of our flight and newspapers proclaimed, with type and pictures, the world importance of our swift passage through space —our almost complete annihilation of distance. Look at the map of South America. You should notice that it is drawn on an entirely different scale than our maps of the United States. You get little conception of the vastness of this groat continent, You probably do not know that the coastline of Brazil is about twice the coastline from Maine to Key West. You probably do not know that Argentine, which appears a small country on the map, is equal in area to all the United States east of the Mississippi. The great Amazon has an island in its mouth approximately as large in area as England and Scotland, while the great river's width as it readies the ocean equals the distance from Albany to New York.

Southern Empires. The extent of this great southern empire is amazing; the possibilities of developing its limitless' resources and richer stagger the imagination. Buenos Aires, with more than 2,250,000 people, is one of the great cities of the world. Yet until to-day it has been quite out of easy reach. Steamships take IS days for the trip from New York. The old clipper sailing vessels of 80 years .ago, over whose path we have travelled, required some 80 days for this voyage. To-day we arc only five days separated from this land of unlimited promise. In a short time this trip will be cut to four days, and possibly later it may take only three days to reach the fascinating and attractive metropolis of Argentine, best described as a combination of London, Paris and New York, with old Spain stamped everywhere on its life and customs. Buenos Aires has been emphasised by the writer merely because it is the most remote point of our voyage. Rio do Janeiro (CQ), the capital of Brazil, 16 of equal importance. There is nothing of the sort in all the world more beautiful than the harbour of this marvellous city, which is growing at a great rate and which is the centre of a country larger than the United States, excluding Alaska. It oilers amazing opportunities. In the United States we have readied our last frontier. Here is a new frontier waiting for countless millions of people to claim its riches. Hopping the Atlantic. And America is not" aware how near we came to losing this opportunity. Germany and France, wide awake to the possibilities, very nearly crowded us out. How many know that a daring German pilot is making regular hops across the South Atlantic with mail (but no passengers) to Berlin in four days from Bio and five days from Buenos Aires? The Zeppelin supplements his flight with a regular bi-weekly service on a schedule of five days. The French, through "Air France," are contemplating a similar service.

But tlio attractive young man whom I met at Natal grips the imagination with his feat. He and two co-pilots leap from Natal to a ship 150 miles out to sea. The 'plane is landed on a large sail, which creates calm waters. The 'plane is lifted aboard, refuelled and catapulted off for a jump of 1800 miles to a similar ship off the African coast, then on to Bathurst, Africa to Spain, and then to Berlin. But America beats this with this great flying ship, which has taken us in comfort and luxury for these thousands of miles. We travel as if in a Pullman car. Midday meals are served to us thousands of feet above the heat of the tropics. So smoothly does the big ship ride that water does not spill out of glasses or plates slip off the tables. And this is but a forerunner of greater accomplishments. In only a few months a new ship will be launched that will carry not 32 passengers arid a crew of five, but 54 passengers and a crew and i provide still' greater comforts, with a | lounging room and enlarged facilities. Step into the Pilot House. Others, still larger, are in view, while speed will be increased at the same time. The Brazilian clipper has been loafing on this tryout flight in order to work in motors. While we have been doing from 145 miles to 165 miles an

hour, it can do 190 miles an hour under fair conditions when the throttles are open full. And all this with a feeling of security and safety. Step into the pilot house of the great liner of the air, and you will be deeply impressed. As wide as the cab of a locomotive, it provides room for four men, two 011 a side, with a spacious aisle between. Two are pilots, one is constantly listening to the messages brought by a weird radio, while a third is tbe flight engineer who watches the countless instruments, checks the scores of indicators and. keeps the big machine at its best. The hum of the 700 horse-power motors gives you a sense of might that would make old Zeus envious. Though of enormous size, this great ship is handled with astounding ease and accuracy. When it lands it fairly kisses the water, without the slightest shock or bumping.—N.A.N.A.