Manawatu Evening Standard. SATURDAY, APRIL 18, 1931. ANNIHILATION OF TIME.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LI, Issue 117, 18 April 1931, Page 8

Manawatu Evening Standard. SATURDAY, APRIL 18, 1931. ANNIHILATION OF TIME.

The time is rapidly approaching when, iii the complete conversion of high, speed aircraft to commercial purposes, there will be given a delinite answer to the sceptics who have hitherto regarded fast flights of tremendous risk as but a test of engineering skill and human endurance, with no tangible value in the progress of civilisation. While Mr Charles Anderson Scott was cutting half a day from the time taken by Air-Commodore Ivingsford Smith in his epoch making flight in the Southern Cross Junior from England to Australia, another daring and resourceful flier, Commander Glen Xidston, was reducing to about six days the time necessary to cover the distance from London to Capetown. When such ventures iirst claimed attention, they had all the glamour of pioneering enterprises of a highly dangerous or impracticable character. Repeatedly the achievements of the pioneers have been emulated or bettered until to-day public interest has reached the waning point. Yet in the waning of that interest there lies the very guide to even greater achievements. Private flights have ceased to claim the attention they, once warranted. The road now lies open to exploit to the full the experience of the pathfinders of the air, as they may be termed, in the direction of commercial purposes. George Stephenson’s Rocket engine was at first a marvel. It lost its attraction when it ran up and down the short measured track. When its Toad was increased and it made Stockton to Darlington its journey, and accomplished it successfully, the thirst for greater accomplishments was renewed, and from the standard of a novelty it became an accepted form of transport which has grown until railways to-day are an integral part of the system of progress. So it shall become with the long distance flights with the heavier than air craft. If one flier alone in a small machine can endure the countless hazards of a long flight from the middle of the Northern Hemisphere to*a point well into the Southern Hemisphere, who can deny the possibilities of well organised commercial transport with bigger machines, better ground equipment, and relays of pilots on the same courses? Prom the novelty or “stunt” flying stage on these routes there is growing steadily a desire for more solid and lasting services. Already plans have been prepared for regular air mail services from England to Australia, and they should succeed because the finest brains in aviation are now concentrated on the direction of fast, commercial flights by heavier than air craft. The debt civilisation owes to such men as Sir Alan Cobliam, Sir Ross Smith, Sir Keith Smith, Captain Hinkler, Air-Commodore

Kingsford Smith, Miss Amy Johnson and the many others whose efforts at first aroused only feelings of regard for good sport will never be realised. They have proven by their daring and fenterprise that foolhardiness is a spirit which may have lasting advantages. When the time comes that we shall enjoy closer relationship with the heart of the ’ Empire through services built upon their experience there will be a greater realisation of the fact that, as in days of old, Britain is still blessed with men and women who can blaze the trail in just as meritorious a way as those who sailed unknown seas in search of new lands, or who brought wealth to the Empire .by searchings in out of the way places, faced by hardship, danger and privation.