SIR KEITH SMITH'S OPINION

Evening Post, Volume CIII, Issue 142, 19 June 1922, Page 7

SIR KEITH SMITH'S OPINION

ADVOCATE OF AIRSHIPS

ACCIDENTS AND PUBLIC OPINION.

(UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION.—COPYRIGHT.)

(Received June 19, 10 a.m.)

MELBOURNE, This Day.

Sir Keith Smith, in an interview, declared that a service of first-class airships could easily put Melbourne within twelve days' easy travelling of London, at a cost to passengers of considerably less than first-class mailboat rates. An airship carrying thirty passengers and seven tons of mails could be run profitably on that basis, and the passengers could be carried in comfort, with proper cabins, lounges, and smoking-room accommodation. He was convinced that a properly organised commercial aerial service, subsidised for the first two or three' years, could, after a short time, be run' at a profit. He thought the public were still rather too afraid of aeroplanes to make much commercial uso of them for some time; but their time would come. There had certainly been a large number o£ disastrous accidents lately, but it must be remembered that much more publicity was given to them than to others. This had the effect of discouraging people and making them have nothing to do with aeroplanes. Accidents like that to the airship R3B resulted from attempting to adapt machines built for scouting purposes to commercial purposes, for which they were not fitted. Such accidents would possibly never happen to airships designed solely for, commercial purposes. Such vessels were as safe to manoeuvre as any ordinary liner. Mooring masts had completely solved the problem of their unwieldiness.