MAJOR JUNCTION

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22901, 2 December 1937, Page 14

MAJOR JUNCTION

AUCKLAND'S FUTURE INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT THE FLYING-BOATS COMPARED Auckland's prospects of becoming the junction of two great air services that between them almost circle the globe will be indicated in striking fashion late this month when there is every likelihood of long-range survey machines belonging respectively to Imperial Air-' ways and Pan American Airways riding side by side at moorings on the Waiteinata Harbour. Regulations under which Pan American Airways co-operate with the United States Post Office stipulate that three survey flights must be made over a route before any mail is carried. So far only one survey trip has been completed, and two remain to be made before the end of the year. The Clipper is expected to reach Auckland about December 19, and is required to return to Honolulu and fly back to New Zealand again by the end of the year. Circumstances are thus conspiring to bring the Empire flying-boat Centaurus and the Sikorsky 5.42 B. Clipper of Pan American Airways to Auckland together. The future of the city as an international airport will be convincingly proved. World-wide Chain Even if the visits of the two craft do not coincide, one will follow the other sufficiently closely to give the public of Auckland an excellent opportunity of comparing the ideas of two great nations as they are embodied in modern, long-distance flying-boats. The fact that both machines actually alight on the Waitemata will be proof of the possibility of the forging at Auckland of a link in a world-wide chain of aerial communications.

Designed for similar duties, the Centaurus and the survey Clipper have many features in common, and their performances approximate each other very closely. There are, however, many differences between tho two craft, both of which have fine records of achievement to their credit. Representing a bold step forward in British commercial aviation, the Short •Empire boat, which has been ordered in large numbers for the Empire services of Imperial Airways, was designed specially for speed, comfort and reliability over distances up to 800 miles. Modified slightly, by the omission of some of the luxurious passenger equipment and the addition of special tanks,, a range of 3500 miles was obtained, and it is one of the machines so altered, the Centaurus, that has been chosen for the flight to New Zealand. riying-boats' Records Outstanding achievements of two similar craft, the Caledonia and the Cambria, -were their experimental Atlantic crossings earlier this year. A Sikorsky, identical with that to come to New Zealand, was used by Pan American Airways for its share of the Atlantic surveys, so that honours are evenly divided between the two types in this great enterprise. The Empire boat to visit Auckland, the Centaurus, which has been in regular use on the Mediterranean service, has the distinction of having flown from Brindisi to Southampton in a day. Performance figures of the long-range Empire boat and the Sikorsky make an interesting comparison. Both have four motors, the British ship using the Bristol Pegasus and the American the Pratt and Whitney Hornet, which give cruising speeds of 165 and 163 miles an hour respectively. Auckland has already seen the Sikorsky, and admired the ease with which the 20-ton ship was handled both in the air and on the water. The public should be equally impressed by the Empire boat, which is of more pleasing appearance. Though both machines are monoplanes, the Empire model is by far the "cleaner," there being no external wing bracing, and the normal type of single rudder is fitted, instead of the twin type used on the Clippers.