AVIATION IN EUROPE

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6813, 17 January 1929, Page 4

AVIATION IN EUROPE

Many Developments.

Creation of an Air Ministry as one of the major branches of the french Government is hailed as one of the greatest steps forward taken in the held of aeronautics since the war. The change, which has now come into effect, is a step for which all those interested in uviation in franco have been clamoring for a number of months and the man who has been selected to bo the first Air Minister of franco is thoroughly equipped to take charge ol the tremendous task of disentangling the muddle in which aviation finds itself there.

Eauront Eynac, the new Air Minister, has been a close student of aviation and an active and able pilot ever since the beginning of the war. Although he had not yet reached the age of 30 in 1911, he was a member of the Chamber of Deputies and saw service as an aviator throughout the hostilities His distinguished record, coupled with his marked ability as a member of the Chamber, caused him to be selected as Under-Secretary of State in charge of aviation, which post he held until two years ago.

The various departments which now will come under one head were previously divided into four main groups as follows:

Military aviation—a division of the Ministry of War. Naval aviation —supervised by the Ministry of Navy. Colonial aviation—under the direction of the Ministry of Colony. Civil aviation —under the supervision of the Ministry of Commerce. It will bo M. Laurent Eynac’s difficult task to conciliate all these various interests and to centralise all of tho various branches of the Government which have hitherto had their own designers, their own models of planes and their own schools and training camps. Although the new minister has not yet announced the details of his plans, it is understood that he will assume full charge of all services having to do with the ordering and the construction of airplanes, as well as to the test and experiment to which new machines will ,be submitted. All schools and aviation training camps will be placed under one control, suppressing all' duplicate services. Ho will co-operate with the departments of war and of tho navy and will not interfere with what they have been doing in the field of aviation from a purely military point of view.. Finally, definite steps will be taken to co-ordinate "all services having to do with the transportation of passengers, freight and mail.

The ever-increasing amount of froight which tho air lines arc being called upon to carry in Europe has been the cause of Tadical changes in the design of new planes under construction. Tho German Luft Hansa has just placed in service a fleet of special freight carriers on lines operating between Berlin, Paris and London, and further improvements are being designed in order to make it possible for the planes to carry as bulky a load of freight as possible. An entirely new departure in the field of freight-carrying airplanes is found in the latest product of the British firm of Vickers. This is a mach-' ine which carries a load heavier , than its own weight and is so constructed that it has a baggago room of hold almost entirely free of internal bracing. According to the specifications the load carried is 51.6 per cent of tho total loaded weight.

The machine is of the biplane typo with a single motor and of all-metal construction. The freight compartment or hold is of exceptionally large dimensions and access is gained to it through a trap-door on hinges in tho floor of the rear part of the fuselage. Special contrivances have been dovised for tho hoisting and placing in position of the freight and in view of the roominess of tho freight compartment, tho machine will be able to transport goods of greater bulk than anything over hitherto attempted. The specifications indicate that tho machine fully loaded will bo able to arrive at a speed of 106 miles per hour and climb to 5000 feet in 29 minifies. This new freight carrier, which is to bo known under the name of the "Vellore,” has been turned over to tho Imperial Airways Ltd., and will bo put into practical use at an early date.

An innovation which marks an entirely new departure in' the handling of air mail has just‘been placed in operation between Stockholm and London over Malrno and Amsterdam, This consists in the carrying of a post office clerk on the plane to sort the mail, in the same .manner as post office employees aro carried on ocean liners to sort the mail during tho voyage. . This represents considerable gain of time in tho handling of the mails, inasmuch as the bags can be taken direct from trains to waiting airplanes, without having to be sorted beforehand. This method has proved so successful that it has been definitely adopted on the line mentioned and will also be extended to other lines.

Excursion trips similar to tho wellknown tourist tours which are offered to travellers on their visits to Europe have been in operation throughout the summer in different parts of Germany. Week-end air excursions are being run from the German capital to several European seaside resorts, one price being established to include transportation by air both ways, and all hotel expenses. In this way it is possible to leave Berlin at noon on Saturday, reach tho seashore at 4 o’clock in the afternoon, and return to Berlin on Monday evening. To further encourage tlit? use of tho many air lines of the Luft llansa, books of 10 tickets have been issued at reduced rates. These tickets arc valid

on any line and arc good for one year.