TRANSATLANTIC

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 130, 3 June 1937, Page 27

TRANSATLANTIC

RIVAL AIRWAYS

TREND TO LAND PLANES

(From "The Post's" Representative),

ST. JOHN'S, May 1.

On the historic spot where Alcock and Brown took off for the first flight across the Atlantic, eighteen years ago, the British Government is constructing a huge airport and seaplane base for the regular service to be inaugu-. rated; next year. On a little hill.' nearby, Marconi listened patiently for the first dots and dashes that indicated that wireless had spanned the Atlantic. In the vicinity also is the spot where the first undersea cable linked the Old and the New World. The initial cost of the airport, which will accommodate flying-boats as well as land planes, will be £500,000. The stiilness of the wilds of Newfoundland, where dense forests slope to the shore of Gander Lake, has beeu broken by the roar and clang of steam' shovels, dredges, trucks, and the woodman's axe. Four hundred men are clearing the terrain and building three runwajs, each a mile long and a third of a mile wide. At the lake, two miles distant, another big crew is constructing a huge marine air base designed to accommodate seaplanes up to 75 tons gross weight. Buildings will include elaborate hangars arid workshops, a modern hotel for... passengers, offices, radio and weather Stations, and living quarters for^.officers, technicians, and ground staff.

Extensive surveys by the British Air Ministry- and Imperial Airways have shown that the lake is free of fog for most of the year. The same condition applies to the land site, which misses all but the heaviest of the coastal fogs that form off Newfoundland from the collision of warm and cold air from the Gulf Stream and the Labrador Current. - •'■' ".; - = v:-

.; Intense activity in the air over the Atlantic is expected in the approaching summer, especially by the "Big Four"-7-Irhperial Airways, Pan-Ameri-can, Air France, and Lufthansa..-, The first to cast its shadow on; the towers of Manhattan is likely to be the widewinged Cavalier of-,:lmperial Airways, which is now at Bermuda.' A second American concern has now entered the field, headed by Glenn Martin, who has promised "new, larger, and faster long-range boats, than have ever been built before." Martin, who is known as a daring designer and builder,'assured the United States Department of Commerce that he is .building an Atlantic plane that will cruise with pay load for 5000 miles; withsspeed of 175 miles an hour. ' Air France is reported to be ready for survey flights with multi-motored giant flying-boats. Lufthansa has bigger and faster catapult planes. ' Millions are being spent on- shore bases, the work being. carried on at feverish speed. Pan-American will use a huge new base, now being completed at Baltimore, for its planes crossing the Atlantic, by way of Bermuda and the Azores. A 25-year concession at the latter has been granted by Portugal. The world's largest hangar is being constructed at Dinner Key, on the Atlantic coast. ALL-RED AIRWAY. The British Air Ministry envisages an.all-red:airway,;by the great circle to Newfoundland, the shortesj;. transAmerica route from Montreal to Vancouver, thence to. Hong Kong, in: cooperation with-P,ari-Americari; linking up again with Imperial ; Airways ' . at Hong Kong for its 8000-niile'service-to and from England. "'■'■. ■;', ,' The most interesting -development in prospect is, the plan of Imperial and Pan-American to use land planes, instead of flying-boats,, over the North Atlantic, The building in Great Britain of the new Albatross type, and in the United States of the high-altitude; torpedo-shaped Boeings indicates'.;a complete volte face in this matter,: and a confession that the modern flyingboat, no matter.how well built, cannot attain the range and load, in the immediate future' at least, that will'beT necessary for commercial operation over the Atlantic.