OCEAN AIR SURVEYS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22901, 2 December 1937, Page 12

OCEAN AIR SURVEYS

Present plans hold out the stimulating prospect that between Christmas and New Year the Empire Short flying-boat Centaurus and the American Sikorsky Clipper may be seen riding side by side at moorings on the Waitemata. Such -a conjunction at the Antipodes should be regarded as full of the happiest significance. It may be the forerunner of co-operation by Imperial Airways and Pan American Airways in the Pacific such as is already an operating fact in the North Atlantic. Over the latter ocean sister ships of the Centaurus have recently cooperated with a sister of the Clipper in making survey flights between Ireland and Newfoundland, preparatory to the establishment of a complementary service between London and New York. Now the long-range survey machines of the two companies seem destined to meet at Auckland, at the opposite end of the earth. They will come together after traversing entirely different routes and their contemplated services should be regarded, not as rival and competitive, but as complementary. Bv the co-ordination of time-tables, each could act as feeder to the other while the two in combination would provide a new route round the globe, with the junction at Auckland. Pan American Airways have already shown a friendly spirit by offering to Imperial Airways the use of the airport facilities being established by -the American company at Auckland on the occasion of the visits of the Centaurus to the city. Of Pan American's settled determination to go ahead there is much visible evidence and its enterprise should now be matched by an announcement from the New Zealand Government that the last stage, over the Tasman, of the Empire air mail will shortly be organised.