THE ERA OF THE AIR

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 33, 2 November 1933, Page 10

THE ERA OF THE AIR

Within the past few years progress in aerial navigation has opened a new vista for civilisation. • This advance has been so rapid, and its achievement compassed in such a brief period of time, that it is really difficult to grasp its comprehensiveness and scope for future development

Some idea of this remarkable advance is given in the statements . made at the annual meeting of Imperial Airways reported to-day. Compared with the traffic of 1932, there has been an all-round increase of 45 per cent, for the six months ended September 30 this year in passengers, mails and freight. Nothing succeeds like success. For this remarkable achievement appropriate credit is due to Imperial Airways for its patience, courage, and faith in developing its splendid system of aerial transport. Casualties have been astonishingly rare, insignificant compared with the loss, of life in land traffic, while the air-liners have run with a regularity scarcely surpassed by a first-class railway service. And that is altogether apart from the development in aviation in other directions both in public and private flying. Each year opens up fresh possibilities. Sir Eric Geddes talks of the future service between England and Canada as if it were a project already definite and assured. The last link in the London-Australia air-line will be forged in a few months, while the New Zealand “leg” is now becoming a question for practical consideration. Organised air services have been made remarkably safe, but still further advances are in sight if the new Cierva autogiro, reported to-day to have passed a remarkable test, becomes a commercial proposition. The adaptation of this new type of machine to regular aerial transport would solve at once various problems of landing grounds, and perhaps revolutionise aviation. • The new era of the air is probably the most fascinating and, as regards the future, most speculative of any in history. The present generation of grown-ups saw its beginning in the “hops” of the Wright Brothers, and at the present rate of progress will live to witness still more surprising developments. 1