NEW AIR LINE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20689, 11 April 1929, Page 9

NEW AIR LINE

ENGLAND TO INDIA. CONSTRUCTION OF NEW PLANES. (British Official Wireless.) (United Press Association.) (By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) RUGBY, April 9. Imperial Airways, Ltd., have placed an order with Handley, Page, Ltd., for the construction of four-engined 2000-horse-power aeroplanes for the EnglandIndia air line. Each machine will be capable of carrying 40 passengers in addition to the pilot, engineer, and steward. There will be a buffet from which refreshments will he served to passengers while the machine is in flight. The machines will be fitted with automatic slots to ensure safety. The total order represents one of the largest yet placed for British air transport. The fuselage complete, but without wings, will be on exhibition at the British Aero Show at Olympia in July, and for exhibition purposes it will be mainly of wood, though the actual air craft will he entirely of metal construction. The Air Ministry has agreed to pay £IOO,OOO to Handley, Page, Ltd., for the right to use the company’s automatic wing slot device in the Royal Air Force machines, NIGHT AIR SERVICE. SUCCESSFUL INAUGURATION. RUGBY, April 9. The first regular night air service connecting Britain and the Continent was successfully inaugurated when the machine left Le Bourget aerodrome about a quarter past 1 this morning and reached Croydon about 4 o’clock, carrying a ton of goods. TRANSATLANTIC FLIGHT. MRS MILLER’S AMBITIOUS PLANS. NEW YORK, April 9. (Received April 10, at 8 p.m.) Mrs Miller has announced that she has made definite plans for a transatlantic flight with Captain Lancaster and Mr Lyon. She has just secured her private pilot’s license. The flyers intend to take off from Los Angeles in a tri-motored cabin monoplane, which is being built for them there, flying to New York, and thence to London and back, touching at New York and Los Angeles. The flyers hope, if their plans materialise and the machine proves adequate, to continue on to Australia from the Pacific coast after negotiating the Atlantic both ways. Mrs Miller says: “The purpose of the flight will be to demonstrate the reliability of the tri-motored type of plane and observe the meteorological conditions.” The machine, which is now about halfcompleted, is of all-metal construction, has a 78-foot wing spread, a cruising speed of 100 miles per hour, a fuel city of 1700 gallons, two Wright “ Whirlwind” motors of 225 horse-power each, and one Pratt-Whitney “ Hornet ” motor of 550hhorse-porer.w r er.

A message from New York received on September 28 last stated; Mrs Miller, Captain Lancaster, and Mr Lyon, upon their arrival from London, told a representative of the Australian Press Association that they' were ' planning to fly next year from Los Angeles to London, and return via New York, where, they will make the only stop on each trip. The machine, which is now under construction, is a tri-motored, all-metal monoplane of conventional design, with the exception of the forward motor, which is of 400 horse-power, while the wing motors are of 200 horse-power each. The Radio Corporation of America is preparing the radio equipment. Mr Lyon will be in command, and Captain Lancaster and Mrs Miller will assist. The plane will fly the flags of England, Australia, and America. DUBLIN TO LONDON. NEW COMPANY’S PROPOSAL. LONDON, April 10. (Received April 10, at 11.30 p.m.) The Atlantic airman, Colonel Fitzmaurice, is among the directors of the newly-formed Irish Airways, Ltd., which submitted to the Free State Government a scheme for a daily Dublin-London service with machines carrying 12 to 20 passengers with an air-taxi service linking up Dublin and other towns with the seaside resorts.—United Service.