PEEP INTO FUTURE

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXIV, Issue 3238, 4 December 1930, Page 3

PEEP INTO FUTURE

FLOATING AERODROMES. Regular air service across the Atlantic are visualised in a memorandum on ocean routes prepared by the British Air Ministry and published ina Blue Book on the Colonial Office Conference, 1930. The gradual but steady advance in aircraft design,” states the memorandum, “has brought the Atlantic crossing into the yealm of regular organised air routes, rather than of promiscuous flights. “When sufficient experience has been accumulated with experimental flights with the two British airships RIOO and RlOl, it is intended to organise regular services between Cardington, Montreal and New York. The actual route to be followed will vary according to the time of the year and the prevailing weather conditions. The three main routes which are likely to be followed are:—

(1) The northern route via Cape Farewell, the most southerly point of Greenland.

(2) The direct route via New Azores.

For some years plans have been afoot in America for the establishment of floating seadromes at intervals of approximately ?00 nautical miles between New York and Azores.

(3) An experimntal seadrome has been constructed and tried out in shallow water. Further experiments are to be conducted with anchorage in deep water. The seadrome, it is stated in the Blue Book, will provide all the usual amenities of a land aerodrome, such as re-fuelling and repair facilities so that the establishment of a regular route will be come a practicable proposition. Another route, known as the subArctic route, is under investigation. This route will pass via the Faroes, Iceland and the inland plateau of Greenland, and so connect up with Winnipeg and possibly Vancouver via the Hudson Strait. An expedition under the command of Mr. H. C. Watkins, and assisted by the British and Canadian Governments, is in Greenland conducting, inter alia, an examination of possible bases for this air route.