GIANT AIR BEACON PROPOSED FOR SYDNEY

Manawatu Times, Issue 6848, 1 March 1929, Page 10

GIANT AIR BEACON PROPOSED FOR SYDNEY

Furtherance of Commercial Travelling

SYDNEY, Feb. 7.

If the authorities a-pprovc of the giant air beacon which a moving picture company proposes to erect at its own expense ,and also to maintain, on top of tho colossal State Theatre and shopping block in Market Street, in Ihe heart of the city, that enterprise will bo credited with a. very graceful and practical gesture toward the furtherance of commercial aviation, by assisting to make night, flying safe, especially as it relates to the carriage of mails. There is an insistent demand that aeroplanes shall bo used more largely than at present for mail conveyance.. The air beacon, 59ft. in height, 250 ft. above the street level, and flashing out a revolving beam of light for a. distance of 15 or 20 miles, would- be a nice advertisement for the State Theatre, which is to be opened about April. But that is merely by the way. It will make tho towering new theatre a landmark all over the metropolis. “Whether the Civil Aviation Department, tho Navigation Department, and the civic authorities will pass favourable judgment ou the proposal, and deem it a suitable site for an air beacon for sky riders a.t night, remains to be seen.

Night flying with mails and passengers will certainly never conic into its own in Australia, as it has done in Europe and in America, without air beacons. The need for them was specially emphasised at Richmond, tho New South Wales base of the Royal Air Force, last October, when Kingsford Smith and Ulm landed on their return Tasman flight. The air lighthouse crowning the State Theatre, assuming that its installation is sanctioned, will bo something like the famous Lindbergh beacon in the, United States, and will, in fact, he Sydney’s Eiffel Tower in miniature. The question whether it will be called the Kingsford Smith or the Hinkler beacon will bo left to popular choice. Coming Perth to Adelaide Service.

There will, of course, be air beacons traversing the route of the Perth-Adel-aide service, to operate in a few months but, outside of that, the huge revolving light surmounting the State Theatre will be the only beacon of its kind in Australia. It is something of a commentary on the outlook in Australia on commercial aviation, especially when one thinks of the galaxy of brilliant airmen which the Commonwealth has produced. The late Harry Hawker, foi example, Sir Boss Smith and Sir Keith Smith, who blazed the air trail from England to Australia, Parer and Mclntosh,. whoso amazing flight from London in a gimcrack machine is a matter of history, Bert Hinkler, the young Queenslander, whose solo dash from England to Australia in a light plane will always remain one of the world’s epic flights. Tdiero are also Kingsford Smith and Ulm, whose great Pacific and Tasman flights added another brilliant page to aviation history, Sir Hubert Wilkins, and others. Notwithstanding these inspiring examples, Australia is a backward country, as far as aviation is concerned.® What has been accomplished is owing in the main to private commercial enterprise and to aero clubs. As for the Royal Air Force, its story is one of tragic disasters. Air-minded Legislators Needed.

What Australia needs is half-a-dozen practical air-minded politicians in the Federal Legislature. The president of tho Aero Club of New South Wales, Captain Geoffrey Hughes, who is an old war pilot, aspired to Parliamentary honours at the latest Federal elections, but, unfortunately for aviation, he was rejected at tho selection ballots. Few men have done more to promote flying in Australia than Captain Hughes, whose status the Commonwealth Government fittingly acknowledged when it appointed him as the mouthpiece of unofficial aviation interests at the International Air Conference in AVashington.