ATLANTIC FLIGHTS

Greymouth Evening Star, 12 September 1927, Page 9

ATLANTIC FLIGHTS

SIR. 'A. COBHAM’S PREDICTION. Now that the Atlantic has been crossed without a stop for the third time —namely, by Alcock and Brown, by Lindbergh and by Chamberlin and Levine —the man in the street is beginning to ask when we shall get regular flying services across the Atlantic (says Sir Alan Cobham in the “Daily Mail”). Before one prophesies or answers the question there are a few observations to be made. First, it must be remembered that the Atlantic has been crossed only from West to East, with the result that there has been a following wind on all three occasions from start to finish. Let me demonstrate what this means. A machine capable of cruising, say, at 80 miles an hour .at its normal petrol consumption, if it has a following wind of 20 miles an hour, such as might be experienced when living over the Atlantic from West to East, would actually be flying at 100 miles an hour, thus covering 3000 miles in 30 hours. Now if the same machine were flying in the opposite direction, with its speed of 80 miles an hour against a head wind of 20 miles an hour/ its actual forward speed would be only 60 miles an hour. In these circumstances instead of covering 3000 miles in 30 hours the machine would cover only 1800 in that time, or a little over half the journey. Another big point to remember is that it would be useless to run a service across the Atlantic unless the aircraft were capable of carrying a paying load. At present the machines are using all their load-lifting capacity in carrying petrol. However, I do not think that this will be a very serious difficulty, for a passenger has already been carried, and his weight in mails for horse-power used at 5/or a dollar an ounce would defray the cost of the flight and make it a commercial proposition. That is, if the Columbia could have carried 2001 b. weight of mails at 5/- an ounce instead of Mr Levine, the revenue would have been £BOO, which, apart from the hazard of the job, would be sufficiently profitable. Now for the difficulties. It must be remembered, to begin with, that the flights across the Atlantic so far have

been made at the very best time of the year. When a service is run it must be a regular every-day affair, and weather conditions must not be considered. Experience has shown that although it may be possible to have a score of delightful flights in succession between London and Paris it is a vastly different thing to maintain a regular service throughout the year on that 220-mile jump. Then again on the cross-Atlantic flying service the hazard of the job is terrific. A forced landing on the. Atlantic with an aeroplane is practically fatal. On half the days of the year the mighty Atlantic rollers would soon smash up and sink the best flying boat ever built. Therefore it is essential that a flying service across the Atlantic should start off with the assumption that engine failure is out of the question. Now despite the wonderful reliability of aircraft engines, with a singleengine machine there is still the possibility of ti forced landing owing to some little thing going wrong, and that is why on commercial air routes experts have adopted the three-engine machine that will fly on any two engines, thus giving- a three to one chance.

Unfortunately a three-engine machine, from a load-lifting point of view, is not so efficient as a single-engine | machine. A single-engine machine is i capable of lifting a big enough losd of] fuel to cross the Atlantic, but there would be greater difficulty in designing a three-engine machine capable of doing it. Of course one naturally thinks that a flying boat is the correct type of aircraft with which to cross the Atlantic. But I doubt if there is a flying boat in existence to-day that could have got off the River Hudson with nearly enough petrol on board to reach Europe. It will be seen, therefore, that what is really wanted is an engine of about 2000-h.p. that absolutely never fails—an engine capable of taking, in the most efficient manner, a large air liner across the Atlantic. A machine of this type would be ten times the size of either Lindbergh’s or Chamberlins aeroplane. Naturally the reader will ask: Why not fly the Atlantic in shorter hops and instead of going non-stop from New York to London, adopt the route New York-Newfoundland-Azores-Ply-mouth?” This would mean doing the flight in hops of not more than 1200 miles a lime, landing at each place to refuel. In these conditions a greater commercial load could be carried, and at a glance the whole scheme seems practical. Unfortunately, however, there is one big drawback—the fogs and terrible weather conditions generally prevailing off the coast of Newfoundland. Now we have come to that stage in aviation when we can conquer practically all the elements with the ex-

ception of tog ana sicei. inrav are our worst enemies, lor although by means of instruments and wireless we may fly through dense fog, it is not yet practicable for commercial airmen to land in a harbour with a flying boat, or on an aerodrome with an aeroplane, in a dense fog. Again the coast of Newfoundland affords little or no shelter for flying-boat moorings, and excepts for a few places it is impossible to make a landing ground there either. If we could but conquer this difficulty an air service across the Atlantic would be feasible to-morrow. . Of course the Atlantic service will come, and in the near future, too, but it will be far more difficult than some . people imagine. It may be possible to cross the Atlantic on dead reckoning with the following wind at the right season of the year. To maintain

the service rnrougnouL uic jua. ..... be a very different task, necessitating the employment of experienced qualified navigators to deal with the varying head winds, cross winds and storms that would be experienced. Just a word about the possibilities of a service by airships—that is, light-er-than-air dirigibles. Unfortunately, owing to the enormous cost of production, we have been unable to experiment sufficiently in the past, bu the fact remains that, providing airships can maintain regularity of service, they will be able to carry grea - er loads at cheaper rates than lleavmr-than-air machines. We “ the v r nh t tious will interfere greatly v ith then. progress, for with a cruising spe , K M miles an hour they would be so seriously delayed by a severe head wind that they might eventually fail to reach their destination owing to la Storm Conditions interfere so seriously with airships that Perhaps to start with the airship route to India

would be the best to concentrate on, for the weather on that route is much less violent than that over the North Atlantic.