Atlantic Air Train Crosses Atlantic

Manawatu Times, Volume 68, Issue 160, 8 July 1943, Page 3

Atlantic Air Train Crosses Atlantic

(British Official Wircleaa.) RUGBY, July 4. The first air train to cross the Atlantic has been brought over by the R.A.F. Transport Command. The 3500 miles were covered in 28 flying hours, and the train consisted of a glider, fully loaded, towed by a twin-engined Dakota. The glider carried vaccines for Russia, and radio and aircraft and motor parts. This is the first time such a trip has been made across the Atlantic or any other ocean, and is the result of many months of experimenting, during which several other records were established, including one flight of 1177 miles. The flight had its origin in the conception of the Air Officer Command-ing-in-Chief (Sir Frederick Bowhill), who while commanding the North and South Atlantic bomber ferry from Canada instituted cautious experiments with a view to collecting exact informa tion as to the ultimate possibility of an Atlantic air train service.

Sir Frederick Bowhill lays no special emphasis on what the flight has accompli hed. The test was made as a forma don for further work to be carried out by the technical research branch of his command. Squadron Leader R. G. Seys, D.F.C., R.A.F., was selected as captain of the glider, with Squadron Leader F. M. Godeil, R.C.A.F., as copilot; both belong to the Atlantic Group of the Transport Command. In the tow plane were Flight Lieutenant W. S. Longhurst (captain), a Canadian ; th the R.A.F., and Flight Lieutenant

C. W. H. Thomson, a New Zealander, also with the R.A.F. Both also belong to the Transport Command. The glider is of 84 feet /wing span, designed by the Waco aircraft firm and built by a piano manufacturer in New York. Its. freight load is one and a half tons. SOLDIERS’ PARCELS SUGGESTION. Letter after letter says ... “Send Pulmonas, we need them here!*’ Dangerous irritation in breathing passages quickly relieved by Pulmonas. Cough and cold germs destroyed by powerful, soothing, antiseptic vapours. Pulmonas are safe and sure. Send a tin to the boys. In tins, Pulmonas 1/2, 1/9, 2/9, chemists and stores. Manufacturers, Stacey Bros., Ltd., Khyber Pass Road, Auckland.

Support was expressed by the meeting of the council of the Automobile Association (Wellington) for a proposal contained in a letter from the Commissioner of Transport that driving tutors should be given certificates of competency by the Transport Department in collaboration with local authorities. The Commissioner of Transport is seeking tho views of municipal authorities and the motor unions on the proposal. The opinion was expressed at the meeting that the proposal did not mean that persons without such certificates would be prohibited from teaching driving. The world’s annual consumption of cigarettes now runs into billions. Originally they were all hand-made, consequently comparatively expensive. Then some ingenious person invented a machine which turned out as many cigarettes iu an hour as hand labour could produce in a week. Naturally prices fell, and cigarette smoking fairly ca,ugiit on. But the cigarette tobacco in use at that time was far from present-day standards, and you’d have searched in vain for brands of such superlative quality as Riverhead Gold or Desert Gold—two of the finest cigarette tobaccos in the world! The three other toasted brands (chiefly favoured by pipe smokers), Cut Plug No. 10 (Bullshead), Pocket Edition ana Navy Cut No. 3 (Bulldog), are also unequalled for flavour and bouquet and for their comparative freedom from nicotine—eliminated by toasting. All five brands are in universal use and are manufactured in prodigious quantities to meet the ever-growing demand. Their popularity has brought out various imitations—that was inevitable! It is the penalty success always has to pay. But the real toasted can not be .imitated,