PACIFIC AIRWAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 50, 28 February 1935, Page 10

PACIFIC AIRWAY.

'FRISCO TO MANILA.

PILOTS WOW IN TRAINING. TEST FLIGHTS THIS YEAR. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SAN FRANCISCO, January 25. Plans for establishing a regular airline service across, the Pacific Ocean from California are being hurried forward in consequence of the interest invested in the project by the successful flights from Honolulu to Oakland by Sir Charles Kingsford Smith and Mrs. Amelia Earhart Putnam, both of whom think tho project feasible. Pilots for test flights on the proposed transPacific route have started training on the Atlantic coast.

Mi-. Stanley C. Kennedy, president of the Inter-Island Airways of Hawaii, a subsidiary of the Matson Navigation Company, of San Francisco, said lie had received no confirmation of a report that test flights 011 the California to Manila route would be started next April. He stated that he was leaving for New York, there to confer with Juan C. Trippe, president of Pan-American Airways, which will operate the transPacific service.

"Whatever is being done toward preparing for the start of the air line is in tho hands of the Pan-American officials," Mr. Kennedy said. "Inter-Island Airways are interested only in the California-Honolulu span. A California base has not yet been selected, although it is probable that first test flights will be made out of San Francisco, due to the shorter distance between there and Honolulu. The tentative route is from California to Honolulu, Midway Island, Guam and thence to Manila. The longest over-water hop will be from California to Honolulu, approximately 2400 statute miles.''

Mr. Kennedy was of the opinion that a seadrome midway between San Francisco and Honolulu would he impractical. However, establishment of a meteorological and radio beacon ship midway was being considered. Pilots for the test flights have been training at Miami, Florida, where they have been required, to fly 1000 miles to sea and return to test navigation instruments. Three huge Martin flying boats are being constructed for the San Francisco to Honolulu service. A Sikorsky seaplane will be brought to San Francisco from the Miami base to undertake a series of flights as a test over the trans-Pacific route.

Mrs. Amelia Earhart Putnam was enthusiastic over the project, but said: "1 believe there should be a landing island midway between California and Hawaii, and another between Honolulu and Manila. But this is a technical problem that- will be worked out. More important, I think, is a radio beam for pilots' guidance."