MAGIC CARPET.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume X, Issue 186, 22 July 1920, Page 2

MAGIC CARPET.

ON THE AERIAL EXPRESS. LONDON TO PARIS. A day at the Croydon Aerodrome tional air travel —gives one some mepof what air travel and transport will develop into when people know better what they can <lo by means of tho modern magic carpet. On Saturday, which was by no means a day of good flying weather, I saw a man off by aeroplane to Paris, and a few hours later talked with the pilot of the afternoon machine from Paris, who brought back a message from the traveller of the morning. It is possible to-day to send a despatch to Paris and get a reply back in five hours. This week a regular service will be started by thd Aircraft Transport and Travel, Ltd., which will enable a traveller, after a not too early breakfast in London, to lunch in Paris, to spend the afternoon there, and be back in London in good time for dinner at 8 o’clock. The cruising speed of the de Huvilland machines, which carry on the regular London - Palis service is slightly over 100 miles an hour, and there is a reserve of power w'hich enables the pilot, if necessary, to send the machine along at two miles to tho minute. The journey from the edge of London to the edge of Paris is habitually done in two hours and a quarter, sometimes in two hours, seldom in more than two and a half. BAD WEATHER NO OBSTACLE. Saturday was not a day that oriel would choose for flying; in fact it was the kind of day when, befote the war,! no aeroplane would have pufi its nose I outside the hangar—rain most of the j time, sometimes in heavy squalls, a I guesty south-west wind, and the sky completely overcast. Y'et flying was i carried on as a matter of course, machines came and went with no more regard for rain and wind than is shown by taxicabs in Piccadilly, and so little does bad weather impress the pilot of 1920 that late in the afternoon in the worst squall of the day,, out came the “City of London,” a majestic Vickers-Vimy double-engined machine, with a Pullman car body seating 11 passengers, for a-trial flight. It is a brand-new machine, gleaming with silver paint, burnished metal, and varnished wood, and looks like a small airship-with silver wings. There arrived in the afternoon a French Farman “Goliath,” a great, twin-engine machine with a wing,spread of considerably over 100 ft, carrying alsa a Pullman car body with a seating capacity of 10. This machine is so big that it barely fits in the biggest shed on the aerodrome with only a few feet to spare beyond either wing tip; the Airco D.H. 9 ’and D.H. 6, elose beside it, look like chickens nestling under the interminable wings of a gigantic hen. Yet the Airco machines ■ are more than tw-ice as fast in the air ! as the massive Goliath, and can give ! the Goliath nearly three hours start, ! and a beating on the Paris-London* course. PARTIES OF PASSENGERS. The passengers and parcels arrive by motor car, passport and ticket formalities are dealt with in a Customs shed on the edge of the aerodrome, the passengers walk out to the aeroplane, drawn up opposite the shed, they, their luggage and the packages of pareels and mails aro stowed on board, the machine “taxis” across the aerodrome,, turns into the wind, opens out a full-throated roar of its engine, skims into the air—and is off! Within a very few minutes it was out of sight, and by about the time one could get back to the heart of London it will be over the Channel.

So several parties of passengers left during the morning; one macjiine carried two ladies with several big -hat boxes and other impedimenta; another a party of three business men on a special mission; a third a lady with her husband and a friend. A good proportion of the travellers by air are women, and they seem to arrive none 1 the worse for a couple of hours in the air. Late in the afternoon, when the worst spell of bad weather occurred, one la'dy arrived who had evidently suffered from air-siekness, but she was the exception. Late in the afternoon we were scanning the bunks of grey clouds for the machines due to arrive from Paris. The Goliath had left at Snoon with three passengers, and had been reported at Lympne at 2.25. A Spad and Breguet had also left Paris, one carrying the French mails, but had both turned back with engine trouble, and were no more heard of on this side. Between .2 and 3 there had been despatched 'from Paris an Airco “16.” carrying three passengers,’ and an Airco “9,” carrying one. Finally the Goliath was espied sailing towards us over the woods to the east of Croydon, well to the northward, of her proper course, owing to the strong south-wester blowing. The mammoth aeroplane is very imposing, but very slow—as speed in air matters is reckoned. She goes under 60 miles uu hour.

FINISH OF AN AIR RACE.

I ’ or ovt ’i 10 minutes wc watched the Goliath gradually growing large as she majestically descended towards the aerodrome. Just as she seemed to be about abreast of the sheds on the iar side there shot out of the elouds the Airco “16” rapidly overhauling the massive Goliath, which, seemed to be feeling her way towards the ground us deliberately as though she doubted whether the earth would bear her portentous weight. We saw that we were in for the finish of an air raee. The •“16” came on like a streak, giving 'the Goliath a • wide berth, and making a bee-line for the -Customs shed, in spite of having the roughest patch of the aerodrome to land on. iSo the homing bird beat the Goliath on the post, having given her nearly three hours start from Paris; the ‘ H>” pulled up and started discharging passengers and cargo before . the giant machine 4iad fairly come to rest. Commercial aviation would seem to be a hardy plant, but it is a young plant, and a costly plant to raise, and it needs all the sunshine of official help that jt can get to enable it to grow healthily during the first difficult years. The Frenvh Government gives a subsidy to French aviation epneerns, which goes a long way towards paying the cost of each journey. The British Government is against subsidies, and perhaps rightly so, but it is a national interest that commer-■ > 1 ■ ■ awiat * oll should become a great British industry, and it is well worth u hile tor the Government to adopt a more enlightened policy towards civil aviation. The Post Office could do much by a more practical policy concerning air mads. Die present charge of 2/6 for a letter to Pans is too high; it kills the business The Post Office should lix a much lower rate, advertise the service extensively, get it'well known, and guarantee a substantial amount of mail matter daily. At present the amount of mail matter carried is trivial; with a better business policy on the part of the Post Office it might bo large, and would steadily grow. “Sydney Sun” Loudon correspondent.