TRAVEL IN THE FUTURE

Evening Star, Issue 23136, 9 December 1938, Page 2

TRAVEL IN THE FUTURE

FLYING BOAT V. SUPER LINER Transoceanic aviation looms as an. important competitor of express passenger vessels of the superliner type, says the U.S.A. Maritime Commission’s Economic Survey of the American Merchant Marine.’ Flying boats, carrying 40 to 50 passengers, capable of cfossing the Atlantic Ocean on a nonstop flight in 20 hours, with transportation costs .under those of tho superliners of to-day, appear to be a reality in the near future.

To. determine the probable effect of transoceanic aircraft on ■ shipping a comparison has been made between the superliner and .aircraft—designed and likely to develop in the near future—on the basis of reliability and safety, comfort, costs, and traffic loads. Except for some, possible less of mail revenue, jit, is riot, believed that aircraft will, injure, to any appreciable extent, the types of passenger vessels recommended 'for the American merchant marine, which do not include superliners. Aviation obviously will have no effect so far as freight vessels are concerned. The reliability of aircraft and their ability to maintain schedules have be: come increasingly impressive. The problem of safe transoceanic aviation is essentially one of range and size of craft._ Actpal design and construction technique appear to offer in the immediate future several 120,0001 b flying boats of *5,000-mile non-stop range, carrying 40 to 50 passengers at an average speed of 175 miles per hour. This non-stop range completely changes the possibility of transoceanic flying as weather hazards and delays are greatly reduced.

The cost of. passenger transportation over the oceans is likely to bo less on future aircraft than on superlinefs. This conclusion is arrived at by a comparison of the costs of depreciation, fuel, and crew for the superliner and both types of aircraft—the flying boat anddhe dirigible. Aircraft designs now available for immediate construction would enable a fleet of 13 flying boats on a daily service of three planes a day, to offer the same total passenger capacity per year as a superliner, at a production cost. for building the planes estimated at £3,500,000. against, an American production cost of £10,000,000 for the superliner. Most astonishing is the power used per passenger crossing. In the total expenditure of power for the number of hours is found an indication of the cost of machinery arid hull of operating personnel that is properly .attributable to each passenger. The superliner requires four or five times as many horsepower hours per passenger as does the flying boat. In comparing replacement costs the snperliner is depreciated on a straight twenty-year basis and the aircraft on a five-year basis. Thus £10,000,000 invested in a superliner is tied up for many years after the vessel’s speed supremacy has been lost, and it is out of date, whereas new aircraft will be replaced at shorter intervals. The relatively low costs indicated for transoceanic flying are remarkable, as it is extremely rare in the history of transport development of any kind that tho faster passenger service proves in its early stages to be the cheapest. As a result of the frequency of schedules possible, tho rapidity and convenience of crossing the ocean in Jess than 24 hours, the low costs and the constantly increasing safety of flying boats, the reign of tho snperliner is being challenged. The 250,0001 b flying boat predicted by experts as realisable in less than 10 years would still further reduce the cost of carrying a passenger to Europe while carrying him there six times as fast as the superliner. . . The traffic loads promised for aircraft over the oceans are large. The flying boats ■ should obtain a substantial portion of the B.ooolb of mail per day Which crosses the Atlantic, as well as many of the travellers now using tie luxe accommodations, to say nothing of the new business that is bound to be created by the faster service. It is significant that the British now intend to carry all first-class Empire mail by air. Overnight air service to Europe would enable a New York business man to fly to London, spend three days there, and fly homo in tho time needed to cross one way in a snperliner. Tho addition of aircraft to the fleets of shipping companies now seoms to bo justified. Just as sail gave way to steam, so may the steamhip give way to aircraft for fast express service. The ocean-going flying boat or dirigible is really another vessel—-a much faster vessel and one that is likely to be ’cheaper to operate.