"Handclasp” At Harewood

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27380, 19 June 1954, Page 6

" Handclasp” At Harewood

The brief visit of the United States Air Force goodwill mission to New Zealand has been stimulating and instructive; and it is exceedingly pleasant to learn from the senior officer aboard the giant Globemaster transport which landed at Harewood airport yesterday that the visit is likely to be repeated at frequent intervals. Many must have been conscious, as the three sleek 829 Superfortress bombers flew in formation over Christchurch on Wednesday afternoon, that these machines epitomised the airpower which saved this country from invasion in the recent war and which gives this country its best assurance of security in the uncertain future. But perhaps the less comely Globemaster—truly a workhorse of the air—was a happier portent of a future which will belong increasingly to air transport, and in which, it may be hoped, the chief function of such giants as these will be the expeditious transport of civilians and their goods rather than the movement of armies and their weapons. Only those who stood beside “the Globemaster could appreciate its size. *lt dwarfs the machines that now ply across the Tasman; it is far larger than the DC6 machines that will soon replace them; and it probably will not be exceeded in size by the aircraft that in turn will replace the DC6 aircraft in five or six years. For many citizens of Christchurch this was a stimulating glimpse into a future in which this city and its airport—warmly praised by the pilot of the American machine—rare singularly well equipped to play an important part.