AERIAL TORPEDO POST.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 16 March 1928, Page 7

AERIAL TORPEDO POST.

A FllJfitNUH INVENTION. QDICKER TH ANAE'ROPL ANEfc>. LONDON, Jan. 10. An ingenious plan for the rapid transmission of letters has been • submitted to the Academy of Science by Professor I.eon Lecorau It consists of the use of what may be called an aerial torpedo running by its own power along an electrified line suspended at a height of 40 or 50 yards, and travelling at a speed of 220 to 280 miles an hour. With such a means of transport letters could be sent from Paris to Marseilles in two hours and a half. The inventors of the system, Louis Hinschauer (engineer-in-chief to the Aeronautical Department) and Augustin (chief engineer of the Midi Railway) declare that postal torpedo lines could he built lor 100,000 lranes a kilometre, which is a third or a quarter of the cost of railway lines, and that their working cost would be verv low.

The “torpedoes.” as designed, are four-wheeled vehicles about 12ft. in length, and each would carry about 5()lb of postal matter. The overhead rails are carried by pylons placed at intervals of 400 or 500 yards. These torpedoes would be despatched at very short intervals, since they would all run at the same speed and never overtake each other. In addition to the question of speed —for mail wop Id be carried in this wav twice as fast as by aeroplane—another advantage is that the torpedo post would run regularly in all weather conditions. It is believed that the service could be commercially operated with a. surcharge of. 80 centimes per kilo for packages sent over such distances as Paris to. Lvons.