ATLANTIC AIR SERVICE

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21631, 15 November 1935, Page 21

ATLANTIC AIR SERVICE

BRITAIN BUILDING NEW BOATS REGULAR OPERATION LIKELY NEXT YEAR LONDON, October 9. Imperial Airways has ordered two large flying boats, which will enable the operating conditions of a Transatlantic air service to be investigated. One of these flying boats will probably be used for a regular weekly service between Bermuda and New York, beginning next year. It is intended that the service—negotiations about which are still in progress—shall be operated in conjunction with Pan-American Airways, which will also provide a service once weekly in each direction. This announcement is made in the Air Ministry's report on the progress of civil aviation in 1934. The report adds that these two flying-boats and a new land-plane which has also been ordered will be larger, will have a greater carrying capacity, and will attain a higher speed than any aircraft in the existing fleet of Imperial Airways. They are prototypes for the replacement of the main line fleet. "The year 1934," the report states, "may in some ways be regarded as marking the inception of a more progressive period in the design and production of civil aeroplanes and engines in the United Kingdom. Development has been stimulated by several factors since the end of 1933. By that time a demand on the part of air line operators for improved types of transport aircraft had already begun to make itself felt and this demand was intensified by the considerable number of new internal services put into operation during 1934, while a further impetus was given by the England-Australia air races and the adoption of air transport by the General Post Office. More Craft Registered Comparison with the figures for 1933 reveals that there was a marked increase in the registration of new aircraft and that the number of registrations of aircraft obtained at second-hand decreased. There was a total of 1174 aircraft registered at the end of the year, a net increase of 119. The number possessing current certificates of airworthiness advanced from 1049 at the end of 1933 to 1210 at the end of 1934. Of these 937 were aircraft registered in Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The number of new certificates of airworthiness issued was 174 Gomcared

with 413 in 1933, 401 in 1932, and 460 in 1931. Further progress it noted in the establishment of permanent aerodromes in the United Kingdom. At the end of 1934 the number of licensed permanent aerodromes, landing grounds, and seaplane stations was 90, compared with 79 a year earlier; and 15 land aerodromes, four sea aerodromes, and one airship station had been approved as customs aerodromes. The number of licensed municipal aerodromes at the end of the year was 21, and seven sites had been purchased for such aerodromes. Reference is made to the growing congestion of radio services. To cope with this, it has already become necessary for the Air Ministry to exercise a certain amount of control over the fitting and use of radio transmitting apparatus in aircraft. Radio-telephony, it is pointed out, is a potent source of interference, and fewer channels can be employed within a given frequency band than is possible with telegraphy. Failing an extension of the waveband internationally allotted to civil aviation the growing congestion may enforce the use of radio-telegraphy by almost all aircraft.