TRANS-OCEAN FLIGHTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21906, 15 September 1934, Page 7 (Supplement)

TRANS-OCEAN FLIGHTS

REFUELLING AT SEA If trans-oceanic air service for freight or passengers is desirable the question becomes one of " ground " equipment rather than of aeroplanes, remarks an overseas writer. Present-day aeroplanes and motors have been developed to a point where trans-Atlantic flights in a single bop are entirely possible, impractical because little or no payload can be carried. The huge quantity of fuel and oil required for the long flight prohibits carrying freight or passengers The problem apparently requires refuelling at sea so that machines can carry a minimum of fuel and a maximum of payload. One highly interesting proposal, which involves refuelling in flight at sea without the use of refuelling aeroplanes, calls for a series of specially equipped liners placed at intervals along a trans-oceanic air lane. The liners will be provided with a long catapult running lengthwise of the ship and pivoted at the centre. Cars running on the track of this catapult will carry tanks of fuel and oil which will be picked up by the aeroplanes in flight by means of a trailing cable and hook. Experiments have proved that picking up weights in this manner is perfectly feasible. When an aeroplane approaches to refuel the liner would head into the wind. The pilot of the machine manoeuvres into position at the lowest practicable flying speed and heads straight along the catapult track. As he passes over a marker towed by the ship the catapult car would be started so that by the time the hook engages with the loop attached to the fuel tank the car will be going at maximum speed. The machine flies on, the fuel tank being drawn up by a winch, and an empty tank dropped, to be picked up later by the liner.