FLYING AT 200 M.P.H.

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 17, 14 October 1933, Page 8

FLYING AT 200 M.P.H.

United States Air Services Very Popular

AMAZING EFFICIENCY

Dominion Special Service

Christchurch. October 13.

“The whole thing was a revelation to me. and the development to the present stage of efficiency and popularity is amazing. . . . American people have entire confidence in air travel and look upon it as an ordinary service." That was the opinion of Mr. F. Milner, C.M.G., on the civil air transport system of the United States, which 'has more civil planes than the rest of the world together. The services carry four times as many passengers as the rest of the world’s air transport organisations. Mr. Milner recently returned to New Zealand after an extensive tour of America and Canada.

“I was in and about Chicago for a fortnight,” he said, “and on every visit I paid to the great airport there I could see planes arriving from all points of the horizon.

“Eight aeroplanes carrying 10 passengers leave New York daily for Chicago, and eight planes lease Chicago for New York. The service is so popular that one ha.s to book a seat a week ahead. The journey of 800 miles is accomplished in four hours. "Then there are regular services to and from Chicago to connect St. Louis, St. Paul, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle with the system. The two great air terminals in America are San Francisco and New York. I myself travelled from Los Angeles to Seattle —a distance of 1500 miles—in eight hours. The machine was a Boeing plane, carrying 10 passengers. two pilots, and a stewardess. Loaded, it weighed 61 tons. With its double engines, it could attain a speed of 220 miles an hour, and its landing speed was 50 miles an hour. “Night-flying in the United States has developed extraordinarily, and by ineans of the radio beam the pilots can find the airports in foggy or clear weather with equal facility. “For the trans-Oontinental trip from San Francisco to New York the non-passenger time has been reduced to 10 hours, and the Americans are quite confident that in a very short time passenger machines will be able to reach an average speed of 250 miles an hour.

“The total number of passengers carried is amazing, and the proportion of accidents very small indeed. The people have entire confidence in the air services and look upon air travel as very ordinary. Business men find air travel a godsend, and the planes are usually full of them. “The fares are only one-quarter more than the railway fares, and up to 40) b. of luggage is carried free. The rate for excess luggage is very light.”