HIGHER SPEEDS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 206, 31 August 1936, Page 8

HIGHER SPEEDS.

BRITISH AEROPLANES,

COMFORT STILL MAINTAINED.

A closer approach between the American and the British ideals in aircraft construction, speed on the one hand and comfort' on the other, is one of the most important developments in present-day aerial development, according to Major A. Murray-Jones, representative in Australia of the de Havilland Aircraft Company, who is returning to the Commonwealth by the K.M.S. Niagara after a visit to America and Great Britain.

American designers of commercial 'planes had, he said, built for speed; British designers for comfort. Th-> standard 'planes on both sides of the Atlantic were, he said, practically as safe as lieavier-than-air machines ever could be. The American services, maintaining faster schedules than did the British, were, he said, wonderfully well organised and managed, but their machines, though faster and, to the lay man's eyes, more up to date than the British, were not nearly as comfortable. Whereas a British machine was absolutely sound proof, the American ones were inclined to be noisy, this being a subject of frequent complaint amongst passengers. In the newer American passenger 'planes, however, the number of passengers carried was being reduced and more attention was being paid to comfort and sound proofing. At the same time the British designers, having set the standard in comfort, were now increasing the speed of their machines. The latest British flying-boats, such as may be used in the trans-Tasman service were, "he said, the fastest aircraft of their kind in the world. In winning the Melbourne Centenary air race, the De Havilland "Comet" had, he said, taught the British designers a great deal about the designing of highspeed machines, and, though the "Comet" type itself was not intended to be a commercial 'plane, a larger machine on similar lines would soon be produced for commercial purposes. These results, he remarked, had been attained with less than a tenth of the wastage that had characterised America's aeronautical history. Receiving Government subsidies amounting to about 30 cents per mile flown, the American companies controlling air services "scrapped" hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of machines every year to replace them with the latest models, and spent an equal amount in experimenting.