ATLANTIC AIRWAY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23026, 2 May 1938, Page 12

ATLANTIC AIRWAY

BRITAIN ANT) AMEBICA HITCH IN AGREEMENT QUESTION OF PAY-LOADS [from our own correspondent] NEW YORK. April 14 A hitch has occurred in the agreement, tinder which it was anticipated that Imperial Airways and Pan American Airways would bo flying on regular schedule next July between Southampton and New York by way of Ireland and Newfoundland. Agreements, embracing airport rights and other navigation facilities were signed, subject to a condition that neither company would start until both were ready. Both made survey flights—two round trips each via Newfoundland and one | via Bermuda and the Azores. Imperial Airways, according to advices reaching here, discovered that the Empire flyingboats did not have sufficient range for the lf)00-mile flight between Newfoundland and Ireland, with pay-load. On the other hand, Pan American, although Hying a Clipper which Avas regarded as obsolete for Atlantic travel, would have been able to carry a small mail load, sufficient to defray a good deal of the cost of the service, it was said. Boeing To Start Test Flights Within the next month the first of the new Boeing Clippers, designed for a <IOOO-milo range with a pay-load or four tons, will stnrt its tost flights, ll this 42-ton seaplane meets expectations. Pan American will be equipped for a service, non-stop, from New York to Lisbon, a distance of .'WOO miles. Franco and Germany are anxious to start their own transatlantic operations, and officials here see no obstacle in the way of starting an American service. If Imperial Airways insists upon 1 an American delaying another year or two nntil the British aeroplanes are perfected, the "United States Government is understood to bo willing to call for tenders for air mails to Europe. Liberal Mail Subsidies

American Export Airlines, owned by a shipping company and dependent upon a subsidy from the Maritime Commission. plans to go ahead with survey flights. It has arranged for landing permits in Erance, Germany and ltal.\. Portugal has granted a concession ill the Azores to Pan American. According to information in Washington, General Franco, if he wins control in Spain, is anxious to develop Cadiz or Corunna as the European terminal of a transatlantic air line.

The United States Government is ready to help with liberal mail subsidies. The Postal Department has available about £400,000 for this service and is awaiting the announcement of pros-* pectivo operators that they arc ready. Pan American has informed the Government that, as far as equipment and personnel are concerned, it can undertake a regular schedule in tho coming summer.