AIR AS THE FUTURE HIGHWAY.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXV, Issue LXV, 2 August 1913, Page 9

AIR AS THE FUTURE HIGHWAY.

FASCINATING PREDICTIONS

An interesting article entitled "The Air: Our Future Highway" is contributed to the British Review by Mr C. Grahame White and Mr Harry Harper. After reviewing the history of flying, the authors ask the pertinent question, "Can flying be made safe " They reply that the early risks are disappearing, and already the percentage of deaths is lower than, for instance, in mountaineering. Speaking of the stoppage of the motor in mid-, air, they point out that a pilot 1000 ft. up has power to glide 6000 ft. by force of gravity before reaching the ground. Flying boats, in their opinon, will be the air-craft of the future. Projects are on foot at present for the construction of flying boats of such engine-power and wing area. as will enable them to raise into the air a crew and passengers, and fly for long distances oversea. As showing the trend of development, a craft recently built in France may be indicated. It has a boat body, 20ft. in length, to seat a pilot and six passengers; sustaining planes with a span of 72ft.; an engine developing 200 horse-power; and its total weight is about two tons. The flying boat, as prefected, will realise the imaginative writer's dream of an aerial "liner." When experience suggests further improvements, and duplicate motor-plants of high power are available, flying boats of great size will undoubtedly be built and flown, and commercial oversea services gradually instituted. The question is now asked: "When will the Atlantic be flown?" As a matter of fact, it was planned last year to attempt the feat, with a machine having a power-plant of 50-horse-power engines. With perfect organisation, a specially-built craft, and luck of winds, the flight might possibly be made this year; but risk of failure, and something worse, would certainly be grave. The authors hazard a fascinating picture of the day when aircraft will be used for passengers services. The machines "in their Initial application may accommodate twenty or twentyfive people, and be capable of travelling several hundred miles without alighting. Passengers "nill be business men, willing to pay high fares for the privilege of passing between the cities of Europe at speeds averaging 100 miles an hour. They will be seated in comfortable, totally enclosed saloons; air travel, indeed, will have a smooth, vibrationless luxury unknown with present transit. Only the subdued hum from the power-plant in the fore-car, and the hissing rush of air past the polished hull, will in dicate the huge speeds attained." In years to come "from Paris to Berlin, or St. Petersburg, or Madrid, international flying routes will radiate; by degrees Europe, and finally the earth, will be linked by airway. Journeys which have occupied weeks will be made in days; voyages which have lasted days will be reduced to hours." I The first aerial passenger service, IMr Grahame White thinks, will be between London and Paris. When this comes about a business man will, "be fore his journey, visit his office as usual to deal with the morning's correspondence-, then he will catch, say, the 11 a.m. air mail, and arrive in Paris at 1.30 p.m. He will lunch, transact his business, and return by the o p.m. service, taking tea while in flight, and reaching London at 7.30 p.m., in reasonable time for dinner."