AUSTRALIAN AERIAL SERVICE

Greymouth Evening Star, 6 December 1928, Page 6

AUSTRALIAN AERIAL SERVICE

TASMAN FLIERS’ SCHEME. SYDNEY, November 21. There seems to be a great deal of satisfaction in the knowledge that Australia is not to lose tlie “services of Squadron Leader Kingsford Smith and Flight-Lieutenant Ulm,” the heroes of the Southern Cross. Although . they have planned to go abroad, they have refused tempting offers that have been made by American organisations, and by this time next year they hope to be operating aerial mail and passenger services between Brisbane, Sydney, and Melbourne, and in addition, to be manufacturing aircraft for defence and civil purposes. Smith and Ulm are now in t<he process of forming the companies which will carry out the ambitious programme that lias been laid down. The ultimate extension of the company’s operations to New Zealand is 'a possibility, once the Australian business has been firmly established. Ulm has explained that although the three cities will be connected by the proposed services, calls will be made at many of the towns en route, the timetable providing for six or eight stops. Triple-engined machines of from eight to fourteen-passenger capacity, are contemplated, a fid they will be of British manufacture. One of the types under consideration is practically identical with the Southern Cross, only with a smaller wing span, and another type under consideration is the well-known de Havilland Hercules, a type that is at present used by Imperial Airways, and which has been ordered for the new Western Australian service between Perth and Adelaide. The Postal Department will sortly call for tenders for an aerial mail service between Sydney and Brisbane, and the new company will endeavour to secure the contract.

PROVISIONS FOR NIGHT FLYING

Provision is to be made for equipping all aerodromes that will be used in the service for • night-flying (revolving beacons, floQd lights, boundary lights, etc.) and the aviators are pleased to be able to announce that an Australian company is prepared to carry out the whole of the complicated and extensive lighting system. Of the financial success of the new company Smith and Ulm are firmly convinced, and .they point to the success in a limited field of Westralian Airways, Ltd., which operates over a sparsely populated route. The Queensland company, which encounters similar conditions has also made a financial success of its operations. Smith and Ulm propose a service of two and a-half trips a week, and point out that they will serve a population of at least three million people.

Present indications are that the Melbourne to Sydney fare would be about £6 to £8 a passenger, and the Sydney to Brisbane fare about £7 to £9 a passenger. The passengers will be accommodated in comfortable enclosed cabins, the temperature of which can easily be regulated. Naturally, the whole route will be thoroughly organised, and test flights will be made before a definite time-table is announced. The negotiations, however, have advanced so far that Ulm has been able to publish a proposed time-table and schedule of fares. Kingsford Smith proposes to personally instruct all the

pilots engaged, and give them special instruction on the handling of large triple-engined machines, in the use of modern Hying and navigation instruments, and in night (lying. Should the present plans mature, they believe that the new service will be in operation in November, next year- After the service has been set in operation the question of extending it to Tasmania will

be considered, and later on to New Guinea. Referring to the proposal to manufacture planes, Ulm said: “We are confident that Australia can produce the skilled tradesmen necessary ior successfully manufacturing modern aircraft, and while it cannot be expected that we in Australia, so far removed from t'he world centres of the aircraft industry, can compete in the matter I of modern design, we feel that by 1 Jibing up with one of the more up-to-date designing and manufacturing companies, and keeping in close contact with them, we can in time produce the whole of the aircraft necessary for the development of civil aviation, and also a, large proportion of the aircraft required by our air forces. Moreover, we believe that aircraft production can be carried on in Australia, in such a manner as to compare favourably with British manufacture on questions of cost and workmanship. We hope—and ajpart from hoping, will conscientiously work —for the time when Australia will produce within its own boundaries sufficient aircraft to meet its own needs and the needs of her sister Dominion, New Zealand.”