AIR CONQUEST OF THE ATLANTIC

Evening Star, Issue 23065, 17 September 1938, Page 3

AIR CONQUEST OF THE ATLANTIC

EXPECTED SERVICES On Thursday (wrote „ the American correspondent of the ‘ Sunday Observer ’ recently) New Yorkers had-the satisfaction of reading here the London newspapers published on Wednesday. This was due to the enterprise of British publishers m putting batches of papers aboard the pickaback Mercury tor the transatlantic crossing. ihe papers sold in the streets like hot cakes, .an after-theatre crowd paying as much as a dollar a copy. My own purchase was proffered to me by the manager of a restaurant as I was dining. Survey flights such as the Mercury made in preparation for transatlantic passenger and mail services are now in full swing. I went out to Port Washington, on Long Island, with a hundred or°so journalists and officials to greet the British seaplane. Next day 1 had an invitation to go out and meet the German seaplane Nordmeer, engaged on a similar mission. The Nordmeer was also catapulted from a mother ship, the Schwabenland, which discharged the seaplane in the Azores, whence it travelled non-stop to New York, at least, New York’s oceanic airport, Port Washington., This lap is 2,397 miles, as compared with the Foynes-Montreal lap of 2,715 miles flown by the Mercury. Both the British and the Germans intend to make other survey flights. The French, too, will inaugurate their own trials soon, so that, judging from the full schedule announced by these three nations, Port Washington, which

is the airbase of the Pan-American Airways, will be a busy transatlantic airport this summer. PAN-AMERICAN’S START. Meanwhile Pan-American, which long ago completed its transatlantic surveys, announces that it will be ready to go into , scheduled transoceanic service “by the end of the summer.” Six super-clippers are in commission, which will be the largest transport aircraft in the world. The first is still : undergoing engineering tests at the Boeing Airplane Company’s base at Seattle. But preliminary water and air tests indicate that these giant 6,000 horsepower 74-passenger flying boats will exceed every specification set for them. The first flight will be via the Azores to Lisbon. In time the service will be extended to England, but under the reciprocal arrangements _ which have been concluded with Imperial Airways both systems will start this direct service simultaneously. Reciprocity will even go to the extent of matching schedules. How frequent they will bo has not yet been settled finally. Over the Pacific the Pan-Amcricau maintains a weekly service, but the 9,000-mile Pacific is, of course, less travelled than the 3,000niile Atlantic. There will also be a free and full interchange of radio and meteorological assistance. At the same time the services will be in brisk competition for the coming transatlantic air And it looks as if it will be big business. So many flying boats are in.commission in America and Europe, so much attention is paid to the survey flights, that popular imagination has been stirred about the potentialities of transatlantic, traffic. The prospect is held out of a rapidlyapproaching future when the transatlantic skies will be as crowded with aircraft as the seas are .with surface craft. Indeed, H° war d Hughes, the round-the-world flyer, says that the time is coming soon when the flying boat will supplant the ocean liner, AIR AND SEA RIVALRY. Such visions are not shared by other aeronautical experts.” It is true that the per seat per mile cost is cheaper on the aeroplane than on the liner. Also, unlike some other operations, the larger the air unit the more efficient the air service. Still, the _ development of transoceanic flying, it is felt, is bound to be slow enough to keep the shipping companies from worrying about ponderable competition. ■ . . This is the gist of individual opinions which I have gatberecl from organisations interested in aircraft development. In answer to my question as to air-sea rivalry, one official replied with another question; Has the CroydonParis service destroyed your railroad and shipping business between the two capitals? Still, as I read last Wednesday s London newspapers in a New York restaurant on Thursday, I felt as if a miracle had been enacted, even though the miracle might not be as transforming in the foreseeable future as is currently expected.