ATLANTIC SEADROME

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXXI, Issue 4954, 11 February 1937, Page 5

ATLANTIC SEADROME

PLAN OF AUSTRALIAN ENGINEER EXPERTS IMPRESSED. (From a Special Correspondent.) (By Air Mail.) London, January 23. A mid-Atlantic seadrome, which, if placed in London, would stretch nearly from Piccadilly Cii-cus to Oxford Circus, has been designed by Mr. M. E. Heiser, an Australian engineer, who believes that it could be operated successfully and economically. The designs are now undergoing full examination in London and have been forwarded to official circles. Mr. Heiser showed letters from leading naval engineers and naval architects throughout Bi-itain who have inspected the drawings and signified their approval of the scheme. The key to the plan is that the seadrome would not be anchored by a cable or cables to the sea-bottom, since it is believed that no cable would stand such a strain. The structure would be stabilised by large “stopper buoys” floated from 150 ft. to 200 ft. below the surface. The stopper buoys would have a capacity for 70,000,000 gallons of fuel oil and petrol for ships and aeroplanes. These buoys would be built of 1 32 -inch steel plates and support 72 pillars built up of steel tubes sft. to 12ft. in diameter which would carry the main deck. The deck in plan is in the shape of the letter “U,” 117 ft. above thewater level. Atlantic waves in the greatest storm rise only to about 50ft. Each leg of the “U” has an area of 2000 ft. by 250 ft. One leg would be a landing area for aeroplanes, and the other, covered with water to a depth of 10ft. would enable seaplanes to land and take off. Between the two landing areas is a large space of sheltered water for the docking of ships, and at the “heel” of the letter “U” or the windward end of the structure, is hangar accommodation for hundreds of aircraft and a hotel. Over the hangars is a catapult deck. Any aeroplane weighing under 20,000 lb. could, the designert states, take off under its own power from the alighting area, but large machines weighing from 20,0001 b. to 50,0001 b. and carrying up to 50 passengers, would have to be catapulted. The “seadrome” is designed to float on to the wind, but to make it capable of manoeuvre the designer has fitted it with 12 propellors and two large rudders. “The building of one such seadrome would be a little bigger undertaking that that of the bridge just opened at San Francisco,” Mr. Heiser said this week. “I hope that two of them will soon be under construction, one in Northern Ireland and one in Wales. Two of my seadromes could be placed in the Atlantic between Ireland and Canada-and the United States at a cost of approximately £7,000,000. This would divide the air journey across the Atlantic' into three ‘hops’ of about 600 miles each.’-’ Born in "Queensland, Mr. Heiser is 46 years of age, and has worked for many years in California on the construction of dirigibles. His seadrome designs are the result of ten years of work and experiments.