NOT ALLOWED TO FLY

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 149, 27 June 1938, Page 12

NOT ALLOWED TO FLY

BIG BOEING CLIPPER A DAY OF TESTING RUNS PAN-AMERICAN'S GIANT The largest aeroplane in the world —the 72-passenger Boeing Clipper with the circular staircase —wanted to fly, but the test pilot just wouldn't let her, wrote A. F. Roberts in a San Francisco journal. Newspapermen who followed the Clipper's tests in a speeding U.S. coastguard cutter in Seattle were amazed at the ease with which the 41-ton flyingboat rose to her "step," ready to take the air. We had an excellent view of the Clipper in action, but every time the huge craft was ready to fly, Test Pilot Edmund T. Allen eased up the throttles. A day of taxi-ing up and down Puget Sound ended late in the afternoon with a damaged sponson—the short, stubby sea wing. A submerged log is believed to have been responsible, but Boeing officials are checking the possibility that a gaso-! line dump valve had been opened in error. Repairs will take several days, so the test flight which attracted aviation editors from the "New York Times," "New York Herald-Tribune," and other leading newspapers, was postponed. "She would have taken to the air by herself," the test pilot told us afterwards, "but we have so many details to record that we must take our time." The Clipper is estimated to have done fifty miles of taxi-ing at varied speeds during the day. She burned up three and a half tons of gasoline, for her four 1500 horse-power engines use more fuel on the water than in the air.

Vancouver has a special interest in

the success of the Boeing Clipper because it may inaugurate a new and speedier connection with New Zealand and Australia this summer.

Although it has been dubbed the "Atlantic Clipper," this mammoth flying-boat may not be assigned to the Atlantic but to the Pacific service.

THREE DAYS' FLYING.

Pan-American Airways, which has six of the boats under construction in Seattle, has decided that two of them will, go to the Atlantic and four to the Pacific.

The huge boats will cut the transPacific flying time from six days to three, and will bring New Zealand within three days of San Francisco.

Plans for this season's Atlantic ex-1 perimental service have not been announced. It is understood that Great Britain has not yet given her permission for the New York-London service. It is reported that she is demanding, in return for landing rights in Newfoundland and Ireland, the granting of similar rights in Honolulu for • Van-couver-New Zealand planes. "We do not know yet whether this ship will go on the transatlantic or the South Pacific service," a Pan-American official informed me. "Developments in the next few weeks will tell." CAN FLY 4000 MILES.

The Clipper's engines, are 1500-horse-power Wrights, still on the U.S. mili-l tary secret list. They produce a top speed of 200 miles an hour. The machine has a cruising range of 4000 miles —enough for a non-stop trip, with plenty to spare. - . The tests presented a beautiful sight. The sunlit waters of the Sound seemed to be greeting the new queen of the air and ocean. There was a fresh breeze, just enough to ripple the surface and add a curl to the Clipper's bow wave. The day's work began at 6 o'clock' in the morning when the Clipper cast off from her mooring in Elliott Bay, opposite the Seattle waterfront, and taxied out into the Sound. Test Pilot Allen, the slim, capable Boeing expert who takes everything from speedy single-seaters to' giant four-engined flying fortresses in his stride, taxied slowly, then faster, and then at almost full throttle. He swung the Clipper from one side to another, testing her response on their turns. He "porpoised" her, nosing up and down on the water, to see how she acted.

Coastguard cutters carrying newspapermen and cameramen tried to an-1 ticipate the test. pilot's next move and to be in place when the first takeoff: came. , After each run Allen throttled down while his engineers and assistants recorded in detail every movement of the hundred-odd instruments on the dashboard. The remarkable thoroughness with which the tests conducted indicate the modern theory of aviation. There is no doubt that the Clipper will fly —in her taxi-ing tests she seemed to be almost forcing herself out of the water —yet Pilot Allen held her down until every minute detail of her performance was recorded for study by engineers and crew. i