ATLANTIC AIRWAY

Hokitika Guardian, 12 June 1937, Page 6

ATLANTIC AIRWAY

BASE IN NEWFOUNDLAND. TRANSFORMING THE WILDS. OTTAWA, June 5. On the historic spot where Alco.k and Brown took off lor the first flight across the Atlantic, 18 years ago, the British Government is constructing a huge airport and seaplane base for the regular Atlantic air service. On the little hill close by, Marconi listened patiently for the first dots and dashes that indicated that wireless had spanned the Atlantic. In the vicinity also is the spot where the first undersea cable linked the Old and the New World. The initial cost of the airport, which will accoihmodate flying-boats as well as land planes will be £500,000.

The stillness of the wilds of Newfoundland, where dense forests slope to the shore of Gander Lake, has been broken by roar and clang of steam shovel dredges j trucks and the woodman’s axe. Four hundred men are clearing the terrain and building three runways, each a mile long and a third of a mile wide.

At the lake, two miles distant, another large party is constructing a huge marine base designed to accommodate seaplanes of up to 75 tons gross weight. The buildings will include elaborate hangars and workshops, a modern hotel for passengers, offices, radio and weather stations, and living quarters for officers, technicians and ground staff, j Extensive surveys by the British Air Ministry and Imperial Airways have shown that the lake is free of fog for most of the year. The same condition applies to the land site, which misses all but the . heaviest of the coastal fogs that form off Newfoundland from the collision of warm and cold air from the Gulf Stream and the Labrador Current. Intense activity in the air over the Atlantic is.expected in the approaching ' summer, especially by the Big Four” —Imperial Airways, Ran-Amen? can, Air France and Lufthansa. Hie first to cast , its shadow- on the towers of Manhattan is likely to be the widewinged Cavalier of Imperial Airways, which is now, at Bermuda. , A second American , enterprise has entered the field, headed by Mr Glenn Martin, who has promised “new, larger and faster long-range boats than have ever been built before.” Mr Martin, who is known as a daring designer and builder j assured the United States Department of Commerce that he is building an Atlantic aeroplane that will cruise with. pay load for 5000 miles, with a speed of 175 miles an hour. Air France is reported to be ready for survey flights with multi-motored giant flying-boats and Lufthansa has biggm anil faster catapult aeroplanes.