EMPIRE AIR SERVICE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19390, 27 July 1926, Page 11

EMPIRE AIR SERVICE.

PROBABLE DEVELOPMENTS, DOMINION MOORING MASTS* f FR-OM OTIE OWSf CORRESPONDENT. J LONDON, June 17. Mr-. S. M- the Australian Prime Minister* "was the first to respond to Sit Samuel Hoare" 1 * suggestion that the Dominions should build mooring masts in preparation 2of the establishment oi Empire ait routes. If % lie said, the Governmerit decide to go on "with the scheme fot an airship service to Australia-, there will be no difficulty about the erection of mooring masts in the Commonwealth. The subject is dealt with by the Times in a leading article i

Within the next ten years/'' says the writer, ** we may hope to see world air routes established, by means of which the Josrney to India will take four days, to Capetown six and to Australia and New Zealand ten or twelve days. Great strides are being made with the preliminary work in connection with the two big airships which are being "built respectively by the Government and the Airship Guarantee Company- As a result of the experiments carried out with the help of the R33 and the accompanying research work in such details as the relative value of different fabrics and metals., the varying meteorological conditions here and in the East, and the practical adaptability of heavy oil engines to airships, the designs <?f the two ships are all but completed, and construction is actually beginnings There is apparently no technical reason why airships of 5,000,000 cubic feet capacity-, able to carry 100 passengers and 20 tons of freight, besides a crew of 50, should not he built. In not-far-distant days there are sound reasons for believing that ships of this type will not only prove a valuable weapon of Imperial defence, but that the facilities for quick travel which they will provide will be of incalculable service to the statesmen and business men of the Empire, and, therefore, to its Imperial politics and its trade." In building up for the Empire this backbone of Imperial communication from Vancouver to England, and from England to South Africa, to India, to Australia, and New Zealand, says the Times, there are two other essentials besides aeroplanes and airships to be provided. There must be, in suitable positions, landing grounds for the one class of aircraft, and mooring masts for the other. These, as the Minister suggested, might in some cases, with the consent of the peoples concerned, be provided by the Governments of the respective Dominions and Crown colonies. " If, as no one who remembers what they did for the Mother Country and the Empire in the hour of trial can doubt," adds the writer, " the other Dominions join with Australia in giving their approval . and willing co-operation to the scheme, there will be set up in each country a central air station, from which branch lines will radiate to form a local series of internal communications, all connected with each other, and with the great common system joining the Empire from end to end. That is the ideal set before us and them, in which all may take a *p art - It is something that ' it' will make cheaper the problem of Imperial defence.' It is much more that ' it will make easier the field of Imperial trade, and will make-firmer the tie of Imperial intercourse.' - 1