ATLANTIC FLYERS

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 284, 27 August 1930, Page 11

ATLANTIC FLYERS

Germans at Halifax THE NORTHERN ROUTE By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright Halifax, August 25. The German airman von Gronau and companions arrived here at 3 p.m., local time, and immediately started refuelling preparatory to resuming their flight to New York from Europe. Canadian aviation authorities think that von Gronau’s flight seems to prove conclusively the feasibility of the North Atlantic air route as one eventually to be adopted between Europe and America. • A group of young English explorers is now in the Arctic gathering data with the intention of planning a route from Europe into Central Canada, probably at Winnipeg. AIR SURVEY Iceland and Greenland The Shell Company has received advice from London that the Arctic Survey Expedition, which left London in July, sponsored by the Royal Geographical Society and under the leadership of Mr. A. G. Watkins, lias added two Moth aeroplanes to the survey equipment for the purpose of gathering meteorological data for aircraft both in Iceland and Greenland. The ostensible object of the expedition, which is being undertaken in Shackleton’s old ship, the Quest, is for the survey of a possible air route from England to Canada via the Arctic. It is considered that it should be possible to maintain an all-the-year-round air service, starting from England, calling at Iceland, crossing Greenland, and finishing in Canada, probably at Ottawa or Winnipeg. It will save about eight days on the present time taken on a journey between England and Canada, and it is expected that the survey will take about a year to complete. The meteorological conditions of Iceland have already been investigated, but extensive flying operations will be carried out in Greenland, the centre of which is one vast ice plateau that has only been crossed twice in history, and then in summer months. A base camp will be established on the south-easter- coast, and the expedition will, if circumstances permit, make meteorological observations for a whole year from the top of the ice cap.