BRIDGING THE PACIFIC BY PLANE

Evening Star, Issue 22106, 13 August 1935, Page 12

BRIDGING THE PACIFIC BY PLANE

CALIFORNIA TO CATHAY IN FOUR DAYS PAN-AMERICAN AIRWAYS TEST FLIGHT For hours eager thousands have waited patiently .in the sunlight of Alameda Airport gazing off into the bright mists which swirl about the Golden Gate (says Mr Courtlaud Haldora, in the ‘ Christian Science Monitor ’). At last a cry goes up, and all eyes swing around to the south to see a silver dot, much smaller than a man’s hand, which lias appeared in the sky above South San Francisco. It grows —assumes the definition of a trim, giant seaplane—and, while scores of aircraft circle and dip in salute, the Pan-Ame-rican Clipper slides to a quiet landing in the waters of San Francisco Bay. Taxi-ing in a zig-zag course like a tacking sailboat, the gleaming craft enters the cove protected by a strange breakwater of abandoned naval cruisers. A uniformed attendant in a rowboat makes fast a line, and 19 tons of aircraft—in fact, the largest American liner now in service—is easily pulled by two or throe men to her airport berth. What'is the cargo which has brought this aerial voyager across the longest water hop of the world’s skyways? There it is, unceremoniously being dumped from the hold of the great ship: a few simple pouches of mail. Not important mail either, but “ covers ” for that more frenzied group of philatelists who garner “ cachets.” Thousands of them repose in those bags, destined to become not only the treasures of first-flight collectors, but a drug upon a market already demoralised by “Farley imperforates.” If the cargo were criterion of the flight’s importance, April 23, 1935, would scarcely go down as a red-letter day in the annals of aviation. But this lias been a test flight, and its successful conclusion seems certain of rousing repercussions along the world’s most important trade routes. Few of the enthusiastic onlookers who witnessed the arrival of the great Clipper from San Diego a few brief weeks ago, its subsequent departure for the Hawaiian Islands, and its triumphant return on this day, realise that the prize being sought by these trial flights over great water gaps is the re-estab-lishment of Yankee supremacy in ocean transportation. . Like . the sky-raking clipper ships which sailed around the Horn to California a brief 80 years ago, modern clippers of the air promise to carry the Stars and Stripes to new peaks of transportation excellence. The success of this trip from Hawaii to San Francisco Bay, in the opinion of Pan-American Airways officials places the seal of success upon the proposed aerial trade route linking America with the Orient. It was flown under adverse conditions, as bad as those which would ordinarily be encountered in regular scheduled service from the territory of Hawaii to California. For 17 hours out of the 21 required to cover 2,410 miles of the trackless Pacific, clouds had hidden the sea from the ship’s navigators, so that it was impossible to calculate lateral drift: for all but a few minutes of the flight winds had been adverse. Yet the ship came through with safety and comfort. It was tough for the crew, but passengers would scarcely have known that Nature was frowning upon the flight’s success. And if the Clipper can laugh at adversity over this stretch of transoceanic flying the other links in the aerial chain from San Francisco to Manila can easily be negotiated. It remains now only for fuelling and supply stations to be established at the other stops on this greatest skyway, and then, it is anticipated, transport tests to the Philippines will bo undertaken. Regular service over this route will shortly follow, and the establishment of connections with Pan-Ameri-can’s existing air lines in China will be easy of execution. What will this mean to the American trader? It will mean, primarily,, that the great markets of China will become nearer to America than they are to Europe. The great air services of England, France, and Holland have already been balked at the Chinese border. Germany alone of European countries has penetrated the Chinese Republic, and its lines will not be permitted to parallel those of the great American company, which has formed a partnership with the Chinese Nationalist Government in the development of air lanes above Cathay. Yet, even if all Europe were successful in pushing its air lines into China, the American company believes it can establish. communication with the United States more rapid than can they with Europe. Overland flying in Europe and Asia encounters frequently those international boundaries where the formalities of inspection must be supported, however great the desire for haste, while over the greatest of all oceans one mile is like another, and the most rapid and uninterrupted flight is possible. The ship which will inaugurate this service has a top speed of 192 miles an hour and a flight range of 3,500 miles, but what the future will bring in increased efficiency is anybody’s guess. It may be that the day is not distant when the stratosphere will become the racecourse of much faster craft. Because this transpacific route is the most competitive open to American enterprise in the air, it is being rushed to completion before the Yankee Clippers attempt to conquer the Atlantic. That will come, too, in due course, as this great American air transport system continues to expand. Already, in the opinion of competent observers, it has grown from a 90-mile system between Key West and Havana to a great international system of 32,552 miles. Its Clippers, designed under the direction of Colonel Charles A. Lindbergh, the company’s technical adviser, regularly visit all but two countries south of the Rio Grand and of Florida. Its spanning of the Caribbean between North and South America is still the longest over-water route of any established air line. Its exploratory flights have covered Greenland, European and American sides of the Atlantic, from the Equator almost to the Arctic Circle, and now reach out toward Asia. Alaska’s air services have been placed under its control, and almost daily its sphere of influence expands. Not only equipment, but personnel has been developed in the seven years of the company’s activity. The commander of the Pan American Clipper, who brought her safely through the clouds and winds of this most recent Pacific hon, is Edwin C. Musick, 22 years in the service of American aviation, and one of the world’s foremost pilots. He has piloted aircraft over a million miles, equivalent to 40 times round the earth, and is said to hold more world’s records in his own name than other pilot, but he is proudest of his record of no serious acci-

dents and no injury to a passenger in any ship which he has been piloting. Others of the crow are also aerial “old-tumors.” What of the great ship itself which is pioneering this transpacific route ? It. is, a twin sister of the Brazilian Clipper which makes regular flights to Latin America. It is powered by .four radial air-cooled, geared and supercharged engines, each developing 700 horse-power, and driving controllable pitch propellers. It is designed for comfort as well as safety, and for landing in the open sea without danger. It is an all-metal monoplane produced by the Sikorsky Aviation Corporation, and carries, in addition to all the usual equipment, several new-type instruments and mechanical aids designed specifically for its transoceanic service. ■ The value of its ability to follow a radio beam as much as 1,800 miles distant was demonstrated on the recent test between California and Hawaii.

Exactly how this great transpacific venture will develop cannot be stated definitely at this time. But it is probable that passengers, mail, and express will be carried on weekly schedules between San Francisco and China before the year is out. The traffic will then determine the frequency of schedules. It is also possible, though reliable sources of Japanese information in San Francisco disclaim knowledge of such a plan, that a Nipponese air lino from the Flowery Kingdom to America may offer competition to the Clippers. But whatever the details of development may be, the successful conclusion of a test flight to Hawaii on April 23 makes it almost a certainty that travellers to the Orient will be arriving at their destinations very shortly in some four days’ time after they leave the Golden Gate, with brief stops en route at Wake Island, Midway Island, Guam, and Manila.