TASMAN AIR SERVICE

Evening Star, Issue 22722, 9 August 1937, Page 16

TASMAN AIR SERVICE

REVOLUTIONARY TYPE OF AIRCRAFT "PICK-A-BACK" MACHINES MAY BE USED A “ pick-a-back ” aeroplane of revolutionary design is being considered by Imperial Airways for use in high-speed mail services across the Tasman Sea, according to an Australian newspaper, the ‘ Sun,’ Sydney. The machine is a Short-Mayo composite aircraft, now being completed in England. 11 The service, however, is likely to begin about March next year with special long-range Short • ‘ Empire ’ flying boats, operated by a new company incorporating the interests of Imperial Airways, Qantas, and Union Airways of New Zealand,’ states the ‘ Sun.’ “ Governments of New Zealand, Australia, and the United Kingdom will jointly control the service, appointing three representatives each as directors of the operating company, or as members of a committee of management.

“ The service is expected to begin with two Short ‘ Empire ’ flying-boats specially fitted with long-range tanks on the lines of the Caledonia, which recently made experimental flights across the Atlantic.

“ The principle of the * pick-a-back ’ aircraft is that a huge flying-boat, as a ‘ mother ship ’ takes a four-engined seaplane heavily laden with mails up to an altitude of some thousands of feet, and then releases it. Once in the air, by this means, the seaplane can fly with a much greater load than it could take from the water. It will have a speed of 200 miles an hour, and mails would be flown between Australia and New Zealand in seven hours. Passenfers would be flown in the ‘ Empire ’ ying-boats, which, with long-range tankage, would accommodate about 18 passengers. “ The initial service is being planned on a basis of two flights weekly each way. Experimental flights will be made before the service begins. Unless these are arranged shortly the, service will not be in operation for the hundred "and fiftieth anniversary celebrations. “ The flying-boats which come to Australia next year will not continue. to New Zealand. This will mean that extra flying-boatSj exclusively for the Tasman service, wdl be using the flyingboat base selected—probably Rose Bay —temporarily. Eventually the service will extend from New Zealand across the Pacific to Vancouver, Canada, linking up an Empire round-the-world air line. “ Provision for the Commonwealth s share of the payments to the joint company controlling - the service will be made in the Budget Estimates to be submitted at the coming session of the Federal Parliament, according to a statement by the Minister for Defence (Sir Archdale Parkhill).”