TASMAN AIRWAYS

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIII, Issue 103, 12 April 1933, Page 6

TASMAN AIRWAYS

AN EARLY POSSIBILITY OPINION OF EXPERTS. KINGSFORD SMITH’S PLANS. AUCKLAND, April 11. The conviction that an aerial transport service across the Tasman Sea is well within the bounds of possibility, and at no very remote date, was expressed by both Captain P. G. Taylor and Mr. H. M. Mackay, two members of the crew who flew from the Ninetymile Beach to Sydney in the Southern Cross last Sunday week when they arrived in Auckland by the Monterey this morning. Captain Taylor is going on to Pago Pago by the vessel, while Mr. Mackay, who is managing-director of New Zealand Airways, Ltd., is returning to the company’s headquarters at Dunedin. “There was nothing exceptional about our flight,’’ said Captain Taylor. “The wind was favourable and other weather conditions were reasonable. The Southern Cross functioned well and the trip was made without any anxiety’. For a regular service from New Zealand to Australia a suitable type of machine must be developed. By that I mean a type which eliminates the possibility of having to make a forced landing at sea. This will be achieved with a multiple-engined plane the units of which are accessible to engineers during the flight. This will enable repairs to be effected in the case of minor mishaps such as in the past have made forced landings necessary. “The possibility of a Tasman service impresses me very much, and also those with whom I was associated on the flight, and who were in a better position to form reliable conclusions,’’ said Mr. Mackay. “Our general opinion is that within the next four or five years some definite move will be made to inaugurate a service.’’ Provided that Government assistance was forthcoming from both sides of the Tasman, Mr. Mackay’ stated, Sir Charles Kingsford Smith was prepared to associate himself with the project. A subsidy was essential for such an air service in its initial stages until such time as public confidence was established. Captain Taylor mentioned that plans for Sir Charles Kingsford Smith’s flight to England and back to Australia with passengers were nearly completed, and the flight was expected to be made next August. Captain Taylor said he expected to travel as co-pilot, and ho would be returning to Australia to rejoin the “old bus.’’ At the completion of that flight Sir Charles was planning another voyage across the Tasman to New Zealand, and Captain Taylor hopes to take part in that too.