PAYING FOR SPEED

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 70, 19 September 1936, Page 9

PAYING FOR SPEED

AMERICAN AIR LINES ADVANTAGES FROM AID GOOD ORGANISATION Speed : costs money 1 , and the American air lines have paid for it out of £36,000,000 in mail subsidies in twelve ' years, writes Major C. C. Turner in the "Daily Telegraph." During this period the British Government paid in subsidies to Imperial Airways only about £3,500,000. Other advantages are • enjoyed by the United States lines, as I found in my recent study of air transport conditions there. Petrol costs them about 7d a gallon, whereas the average in Great Britain is- nearly twice as much and Imperial Airways pays on the Empire routes an aver- - age, -I believe, of something like 2s 6d a gallon, owing to cost of transpor- . tation at outlying, places. As in Great Britain, much has been provided for the air lines, of the U.S.A, quite apart from mail: contracts. The Department of Commerce maintains many essehtiar services. There are many hundreds of municipal air ports, which are not yet profit-making concerns any more than are those of Great Britain. The beacons and meteorological services are provided and maintained by -the Department of | Commerce. But the companies have spent lavishly on technical developments, and in this way they.have been able to set standards for the world. VALUE OF RUNWAYS.

In the U.S.A. there are 2368 air ports and landing fields; and many hundreds of these have prepared runways. And there are other reasons for runways than the weather, which makes the preservation of turfed surface-diffi-cult in most parts of the States. They greatly assist the take-off of airliners; and they reduce jolting, which deteriorates the machine, and distresses passengers. , Not only the aerodromes on our Empire lines, but those in Great Britain,. civil and military, must have prepared hard-surf ace runways,'especially now that retractable undercarriages are the rule. The principal companies spend money very liberally on the training of pilots, and in equipment of air port buildings and offices. ••,■ v Transcontinental and Western have a research aeroplane, a true flying laboratory. They keep 18: older pilots whose sole duty, out of their great experience, is to advise acting pilots. Comparing American with British airliners, it will be seen that the Americans use more power for a given job of work than the British.' Their airliners have been built for speed, and that means more powerful, and therefore more expensive, engines, greater consumption of fuel for an additional few' miles per hour, ' and less pay load for, power expended. The famous Douglas was developed at the instigation of Transcontinental and Western, who defrayed much of the great cost entailed.it soon,became apparent that the clean design of this type allowed the best use to be made of power expended. In short, the Douglas demonstrated that economy of power may be secured by avoidance of waste due to unnecessary air resist-, 'ance: ■■■•.:.■-■ " ■■''■ "• -■'■';"' BRITISH PREFERENCE. '

The Boeing about two years, ago was the best medium-size airliner in the world, with its cruising speed of 180 m.p.h., and a high degree of comfort. It remains today one of the best, although the Douglas has beaten it in economy in maintenance, in comfort, and in sound-proofing in the cabin. .The Boeing and Douglas belong to a class which Great, Britain, had not developed. Great Britain was,not running inland air lines,-but was.concentrating on Empire routes, and on reducing the wide margin between cost and revenue. ;,, ' , :•■ , v . The very big, airliner was adopted; and, after safety, comfort was the goal. There was no urge to speed,, and Imperial Airways claimed that airliners of 90 ta 100 m.p.h. were fast enough even on the London-Paris route. This class of airliner is still in service, and is to remain in service for another year or two. r The Douglas, however, provided a good deal of comfort as well as speed, and the chief points of superiority of the big, slow, British airliners are "four-engine reliability" arid'superior accommodation. In the matter of behaviour in rough air I cannot discover any advantage in the slow aeroplane. Certainly, I have seen fewer people ill, in Boeings and Douglases doing 170 to 190 m.p.h. than I have in British 38-seaters going at 95 m.p.h. AN IMPROVED MACHINE.

An improved Douglas, the D.C.3, is „, now coming on to the American lines, * and is being produced to the extent of at least 150. It is somewhat .bigger than the D.C.2, and is faster and has greater range and load capacity. As a day aeroplane, it seats twenty-four. As the sleeper transport, built for American Airlines, it carries sixteen, and there is a special dayroom for two persons at the cost of three fares. In small airliners Great Britain is holding her own, and there is none more satisfactory from the economy point of view than the De Havilland series. , Indeed, the British industry offers the world a wider choice in small' high-speed airliners than any other country. . American air-line operators have

been driven to forsake the costly com-

petition which led to the production of 1 such type's as the Boeing, the Douglas, and the single-engine Vultee; and a group of the five more important companies have combined in a demand for a new Douglas type, one to be standardised lor several years.' The new Douglas is to carry forty passengers for 900 miles non-stop, or twenty in sleeping compartments for 2000 miles non-stop. A top speed of; 230 m.p.h.. and cruising at 193 m.p.h. at ' CO per cent, of its power, or at 210 m.pJh. at 75 per cent., ne aimed at. The machine is to have four engines, each of 1000 h.p., and will be able to climb to 9000 feet oh any two engines.

ALL BUILDING THEM. It is a noteworthy fact that in all the principal European countries fourengined forty-seaters are now being built. Great Britain will have flying boats and land aeroplanes of this capacity. The new Armstrong-Whit-worth big fou?-engine machine in construction for Imperial Airways promises to rival next year's Douglas. De Havilland's have a new fourengined type built on the lines of the famous "Comet," which won the Eng-land-Melbourne race. It is to have a cruising speed of more than 200 m.p.h. The very big machine is better suited

to Varying loads and circumstances than a smaller type, and with the in- * creasing demand for air travel there can be no doubt that air passengers and freight in sufficient' quantity will be available. ; On the other hand, the big machine is not at present consistent with the very frequent services which • enable air.lines to compete to best advantage against railroads. . Mr. Glenn Martin, the famous flying-

boat designer, remarked to me the other day, apropos the new mail subsidy terms to Imperial Airways, "Now Great Britain will.go ahead." In his opihion, big technical developments are certain to accompany the programme of multiplied and accelerated British Empire services. But it is certain Great Britain will have to work very hard to hold her own against American competition.