ATLANTIC AIR SERVICE

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21328, 22 November 1934, Page 11

ATLANTIC AIR SERVICE

Dr. Eckener Announces Plans TWO-DAY CROSSING (CNI'IED TRESS ASSOCIATION—BY ELECTBIO TK LEG BArII—COPYttIG JIT.) (Received November 21, 11.40 p.m.) LONDON, November 21. The Berlin correspondent of the "Daily Mail" says that Dr. Hugo Eckener has announced a fortnightly I trans-Atlantic service between Germany and America. The fare will be £6O and the journey will occupy 48 hours eastward and 55 hours westward. The Zeppelin to be used will carry 50 passengers and 20 tons of freight. IA recent message stated that Dr. Eckener hoped to establish services between Great Britain and india and Holland and the Dutch East Indies, as well as over the Atlantic. I ARRANGEMENTS IN AMERICA NO DEPENDENCE ON SUBSIDIES COMI'LKTION OK AIUSHII' IN | AJ'UIL !■ | NEW YORK, October 20. Dr. Hugo Eckener, the German I dirigible expert and commander of the Graf Zeppelin, arrived in New [York yesterday, to make terminal arrangements here lor the new Zeppelin LZI29, now being constructed. Dr. Eckener declared that he depended in no way upon government mail subsidies for the success of his ambitious aim—the beginning of a North Atlantic airship service for passengers and mail. The proposition was a purely business one, he said. He needed a suitable hangar fur the new dirigible and was ready to pay for it. He was ready to carry mail at proper rates but did not look for mail subsidies, lie declared. "I hope to be able next year to start a regular service between Germany and the United States with our new airship, the LZ129." Dr. Eckener said. "It will be completed about the middle of April. I am here now to find the necessary facilities for the airship, such as hangar and mooring mast. "I will coiil'er wiili Mr Paid Litchfield, president of the Goodyear Zeppelin Corporation of Akron, and with officials of the Navy Department." In 1029, Dr. Eckener continued, he tried to organise a transatlantic service and many people were interested, but "meanwhile ' the depression came along." "Now I feel that a regular transatlantic service never will come if I cannot find facilities to make demonstration flights." he added. He said he hoped to begin his demonstration flights next summer. Passengers would be carried at a rale only about 1') per cent, above that of fast Atlantic liners, or about £SO, lie said. The LZI29 will be able to carry 50 passengers, compared with the 20 now carried by the Graf Zeppelin, which is at present making her thirty-third voyage across the South Atlantic. Big New Dirigible The new dirigible will be about 25 feet longer than the Graf Zeppelin, he said, and will be about "0 feet more in diameter. Its gas capacity will be about 80 per cent, greater. If will have a cruising speed of 80 miles an hour. While routes and passage time depend largely upon air conditions, Dr Eckener said the LZI29 would fly From Germany to New York in 60 hours, and back in about 50 hours, since westerly winds prevail the greater part of the year. The ship will be equipped with four Diesel engines. Dr. Eckener said that the trips would bring a profit it the ship got 40 passengers and a reasonable amount of mail.