FUTURE PLANES

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 112, 14 May 1938, Page 10

FUTURE PLANES

AMERICAN PLANS ' TRANS-OCEAN FLIGHTS Five proposals for an ultra-modern type of transport equipment designed for transatlantic service were studied by officials of Pan-American Airways after receipt in sealed form of plans from leading American manufacturers. The proposed airplanes, according to requirements established by the company last autumn, would be capable of carrying 100 passengers, a crew of 16, and necessary baggage on non-stop flights of at least SUUO miles. Cruising speeds of the airliners would range from 200 miles an hour at near sea level to nearly 300 miles an hour at altitudes around 25,000 ieet Preliminary designs submitted by the builders were being distributed ,to members of a technical committee' of which Colonel Charles A. Lindbergh is chairman, it was announced. Should any one of toe plans be acceptable, the line expects to award engineering contracts for detailed drawings and then to negotiate for the construction of an aeroplane fleet in lots of three, six, and twelve units. Four manufacturers with broad experience in the construction of large aeroplanes were listed, among those responding to the invitation of PanAmerican to submit preliminary designs for the transatlantic equipment. They were the Douglas "Aircraft Company, of Santa Monica, California; the Boeing Aircraft Company, of Seattle, Washington; the Consolidated Aircraft Corporation, of San Diego, California; and the Sikorsky Aircraft Company, of Bridgeport, Connecticut. A fifth builder—the Seversky Aircraft Corporation of Farmingdale, New York— mad§ a proposal on its own initiative for the construction of an aeroplane far larger than asked by the PanAmerican Lines. / While the Seversky Company has in the past specialised in the production of small military, training, and amphibian craft, its proposal to PanAmerican calls for a flying-boat to carry 120 passengers at a speed of 300 miles an hour. The company estimated two years-would be required to build its aeroplane and that the costi of the first unit might be 7,000,000 dollars. Among the preliminary designs submitted to Pan-American only that for the Seversky equipment was made public. Colonel Alexander P. Seversky, president of the corporation, described his aeroplane as a great flying wing which could in time of war be transformed into a super-aerial dreadnought with a capacity of carrying ten 20001b bombs for 12,000 miles at a speed of 300 miles an hour. If the bomb load were reduced to 64001b, the aeroplane could fly 3000 miles at a speed of 380 miles an hour, he said. The design shows two parallel hulls which would be retracted against the flying wing in flight. Passengers would be housed in the wing itself. Eight, engines of 2300 horse-power each, geared to five propellers to drive the giant craft through the air, also would be located in the same structure.