AEROPLANE SERVICES

Press, Volume LV, Issue 16506, 25 April 1919, Page 9

AEROPLANE SERVICES

ORGANISATION IN AUSTRALIA. (FROM OtTR OWN CORUESFOXDEXT.) SYDNEY, April 16. Vigorous preparations for the establishment of aeroplane services in Australia continue, and there is no doubt that regular lines will be in operation by the middle of 1920. At the present moment, two definite projects are under way. Tlio first, called Aerial Services, Limited, is concerned with a scheme for linking up Australia witty the air services of the rest of the world. A company has been formed and registered for this purpose, and it has an expedition now out in the interior of Australia seeking the best aerial route and landing-stations between Sydney and Darwin, from which point it is intended to reach Asia through the Indies and tho Malay Peninsula. This expedition, led by Mr Richard Lloyd, and travelling mostly on powerful motorcycles, is at present near the border between Queensland and tho Northern Territory, somewhere west of Cloncurry. It has met many difficulties, but has steadily fought its way into tho northwest.

Tho other company, known as Aerial Transport, Limited, has just been registered. It proposes to establish aerodromes in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, Launceston, and Hobart, and the average passenger fares between the capital cities is to be about £6 each way. It is intended to run aeroplanes between Melbourne and Sydney in 6J hours, Melbourne and Adelaide in o} hours, between Melbourne and Hobarfc (landing at King's Island and Launceston) in 7J hours. Later on, there will be a daily service between Sydney and Brisbane in G-J hours, Sydney and Adelaide (landing at Hay) in 11 hours, Melbourne and Broken Hill (landing at Hay) in 7 hours, and from Adelaide to Perth (landing at KalgoorJie) in 18 hours. Some time after that, the larger country towns will bo connected with the cities by aeroplanes. The machines to be .used in this latter scheme will have a lifting capacity of 3} tons, and each will carry 30 nassengers and very- moderate luggage, or 12 passengers and two tons of goods, It i s estimated that freight could be carried at eightpence per pound. It i 3 thought that mails could be carried at a halfpenny per ounce. Two big de Haviland aeroplanes are to be put into commission forthwith in Sydney as pleasure-craft. Persons are expected to pay a considerable sum for the novelty of flying. Two Australianmilitary aviators set out to fly the machines to Svdney from Melbourno over a fortnight ago, but they encountered very bad weather. One reached Sydney some days since, after many stops; the other is somewhere in southern New South Wales awaiting a new propeller. The Sydney-Melbourne flight is nothing new, having been accomplished on a few occasions in quick time.