Manawatu Daily Times. Transatlantic Air Service

Manawatu Times, Volume LIII, Issue 6552, 8 March 1928, Page 6

Manawatu Daily Times. Transatlantic Air Service

Two announcements of interest from the “lords of the air arc that Canada is to bo the,terminus of the trans-Atlantic air liner service which is to commence shortly, and that Britain has just successfully tested the world’s largest all-metal monoplane, capable of carrying twenty passengers. The rivalry between the light,er-than-air and heavier-than-air machines therefore promises to be much keener than was anticipated, and the year 1928 will see an amazing advance in air traffic, especially as it is now known that Germany has entered the race for the conquest of the Atlantic.

Commander Burney, head of the Airship Guarantee Company, which is building the two giant air liners for Britain, stated in January that it was common knowledge that the German Zeppelin Company was making an effort to be the first to establish a commercial air service across the Atlantic. “It is now known,’ he said, “that the German Zeppelin Company has put on night as well as day shifts of skilled workers in order to expedite the completion of their new Atlantic airship, the LZ-127. This airship will probably have been completed, and put through her trials, in time to make a demonstration air trip across the Atlantic in October. It is now possible, however, in view of their new ‘ push ’ that this programme may be accelerated. My vessel, the R-100, should be finished within the next few months, but the carrying-out of her official trials will depend upon the completion of a great new airship shed at the Royal Airship Works, Cardington, near Bedford. It is understood that this new shed, which the R-100 is to occupy, will be ready in July. “The airship will then be put through her trials by the Air Ministry. They will include tests in speed and manoeuvring. She will also make an extended cruise, and will have to remain moored for a jycck at the Cardington mast. The vital point, in view of the quickening of the German preparations, is that the official trials of the R-100 should be carried' through as quickly as possible. A period of several months has been mentioned as being necessary, but in view of the new situation which has arisen I hope that they may be effected in not more than about a fortnight. ’‘Directly the R-100 has accomplished these official trials,” continued Commander Buxuiey, “I am arranging to purchase the vessel from the Air Ministry and fly her out on a demonstration trip to America, carrying a certain number of passengers. What I am most anxious to arrange," continued the commander, “is that it shall be a British dirigible which is the first to show, by several flights with passengers to and fro across the Atlantic, that with a big purely commercial-type dirigible, such voyages are now a practical proposition. “A great deal now depends upon which country is first to accomplish such flights on the Atlantic route. Germany is very much alive to this, and is straining every nerve to be first. What is now indicated is the establishment of an international airship operating organization with a capital of as much as £7,000,000. There will be scope, at any rate at first, for only one company of such a nature on the North Atlantic route, and the extent to«which Europe is represented in it will depend largely upon the result of these impending flights. I am absolutely determined, no matter what obstacles may arise, that this race to be first on the Atlantic airship route shall be won by a British dirigible, operated by private British enterprise.”