ATLANTIC AIRWAY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22461, 3 July 1936, Page 8

ATLANTIC AIRWAY

PROPOSED SERVICE

LONDON TO MONTREAL

CALL AT NEW YORK EN ROUTE

[from our own correspondent] VANCOUVER, June 3

The last and most difficult phase of linking England by air with the rest of the Empire is about to be under, taken, in the proposal to bring Canada into the Empire chain. The gap between the United Kingdom and Canada has been the subject of comprehensive study and experiment by the United Kingdom authorities.

This gap has been surveyed by over three alternative routes: —Iceland. Greenland-Hudson Bay, Ireland-Neir, foundland-Nova Scotia, and London. Lisbon-Azores-Bermuda-New York-Mon. treal. Conferences held by the British, Canadian and American authorities at Ottawa and Washington in December 1935, brought nearer to fruition the prospect, so long heralded, of a trans, atlantic air service for passengers mails. An agreement was reached, en. dorsing the third route, with the Briti-sh terminal in the estuary of the Shannon. The service is expected to bo. gin in October. ' Composite Aircraft British aeronautical designers do not agree with their American colleagues as to the effectiveness of the flying boat which has .been utilised on the Cali. i'ornia-Manila run, and which will be the United States contribution to the transatlantic service. Britain will rely experimentally on an invention of Major Mayo, known as the composite aircraft, which combines a heavy, long, range, four-engined monoplane, attached to the dying boat in taking off. When the craft are in the air, at full speed, the lifting monoplane will cut adrift and return to the airport, while the flying boat will continue on its way with a would have besg too heavy for at alone at the take-off. The cost of establishing radio guides for the route, which are expected to inelude newly-designed beacons anchored in mid-ocean, will be shared by both Governments.

In any discussion of the Great Circle route, pioneered by Alcock and Brown, of 1800 miles, between Newfoundland and the Lizard, with its prospect of fog, and of ice forming on the wings, technical discussjon inevitably turns to the seadrome or floating steel island airport, which two years ago was ap. proved by the United States Government. Storms in Atlantic Wind and storm frequency in the North Atlantic is much greater than in the Pacific, where the Clipper aeroplanes do their largest hop of 2400 miles between California and Honolulu. With an intermediate stop, iji-the form of a seadrome, it is contended that the Clipper aeroplanes could carry double their present load, equal to 50 passengers or 10,00011). of mail. A similar payload could be carried if a seadrome were placed midway between Newfoundland and Ireland. The seadrome, its structural design latterly strengthened and simplified, consists of a steel and iron open-work truss structure, with a deck six acres in area, 100 feet above the water line, supported by 32 buoyancy tanks or hollow steel supporting tubes. 40 feet below water. Ballast chambers extend 200 feet below the surface.