HUGE AIR LINERS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 284, 30 November 1944, Page 8

HUGE AIR LINERS

PAN-AMERICAN PLANS

to SAVE NEW ZEALAND (0.C.) SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 2. Evidently attempting to meet world aviation competition, Pan-American World Airways has placed the largest contract in the history of commercial aviation with the Douglas Aircraft Company of California, according to an announcement made in Los Angeles by the president of the aeroplane company, Mr. Donald W, Douglas. This immense contract calls for delivery by the manufacturer of a fleet of 26 four-engined super clippers at a cost of 40,000,000 dollars. Final production details were not made public, but Mr. Douglas disclosed that the sky giants will be built at the company's Long Beach plant in California, which is one of the largest plants of its kind in the world. The clippers are designed to carry 108 passengers and a crew of 13, to make speeds of more than 300 miles an hour and to provide comfortable travel at an altitude of 20,000 ft. Their wings, from tip to tip, will exceed in length the height of a 16-storey building. Details of a new transport plane weighing 92 tons and capable of carrying 149 passengers were revealed also by Pan-American Airways in exhibit data prepared for the Civil Aeronautics Board's joint hearing of North Atlantic route applications. Known as P.A.A. Type 10, the aircraft is designed for a range of 3500 miles and a cruising speed of 288 miles an hour. Its four engines would be rated at 3500 h.p. each for take-off and 2800 normal.

In trans-Atlantic operations PanAmerican proposes to carry 128 passengers by day and 119 at night, the latter arrangement including berths for 30 persons and 89 seats. The crew will include four pilots, three stewards, two radiomen, a navigator and a flight engineer. Cost of the plane has been estimated at 2,029,488 dollars compared with 1,412,488 dollars for the Douglas DC7, which PanAmerican refers to as Type 9. The DC7 is listed at 162,0001b, a maximum of 108 passengers, with an operational capacity of 95 by day and 79 by night for transocean flights. Neither of these planes has been flown yet, but considerable progress has been reported and will be accelerated as war production demands ease. Pan-American refers to the Lockheed Constellation, which is in production as the U.S. Army's C 69, as Type 8 and lists its weight as 96,1001b, passenger capacity at a maximum of 56 with 40 by day and 30 by night over the ocean. The estimated cruising speed is 322 miles an hour and the cost is placed at 727,288 dollars. The 26 super clippers are intended for trans-Pacific flignts, covering the Orient and New Zealand, and also for the Pan-American South American services.