AMERICA'S LEAD.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 114, 15 May 1936, Page 8

AMERICA'S LEAD.

COMMERCIAL AVIATION, COSTLY EXPERIMENTS. Claiming that American designers and builders of commercial aircraft liad far outstripped the British, Mr. F. V. Blair, owner of the airport at Miami, Florida, who passed through Auckland aboard the Monterey to-day, said that the rapid progress of civil aviation in the United States had been directly due to the intense competition among the various companies operating aeroplane services.

"Few people realise the immense amount of money that the various companies spend oh experiments," stated Mr. Blair. "Every new device that promises to improve the comfort, speed or safety of air travel is tested, and, if it is successful, is adopted. This leads to the frequent scrapping of 'planes that have been in service only a short time when better ones are built. One factory, for instance, had just begun to turn out a new model that was an improvement <Jn anything previously in use when the Douglas, which was even better, appeared, and the air lines took it up. The factory had then to abandon its plans and try to find something better than the Douglas. 'Planes that are so quickly rendered obsolete for the purposes of /the commercial air lines find, however, a ready sale amongst wealthy private owners." Mr. Blair said that in point of comfort the modern American passenger 'planes had reached practically perfection. From 18 to 30 passengers could be carried in the larger 'planes, which were equal in comfort to the most luxurious Pullman car. Sound-proof construction isolated them from all the noise and-vibration of tlie motors, and meals were served in the air. "Experiments in making air travel safer are still being made, though there is now little chance of a passenger plane encountering trouble," stated Mr. Blair. "Fo" is still the aviator's worst enemy, but "dangers arising from fog have been practically overcome by the installation of radio beacons along all the uy'y'S routes from one coast to another, while the Sperrv gyroscope and the artificial horizon enable the pilot to land his ship safely in any weather."