ATLANTIC BY AIR

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23204, 31 May 1937, Page 15

ATLANTIC BY AIR

GERMANY PLANS A SERVICE Germany's new aeroplane "mother ship," the fc'riesenland, has been launched at Kiel, and is shortly to proceed to Horta, in the Azores, where (the Daily Telegraph says) she will be stationed for the summer. Aeroplanes will be catapulted from her for the 2500-mile flight to New York, where another "mother ship," the Schwabenland, will receive them. The Schwabenland was in New York harbour last year lor German trans-Atlantic air mail experiments, and the Aeolus, a flying boat, was catapulted from her deck and flew to Horta in 17 hours 50 minutes last September. The flying boats to be used on the mail service are the Aeolus and Zephyr, a Dornier type, weighing 10 tons and fitted with two engines of 550 h.p. The catapulting apparatus on the Schwabenland and Fnesenland is' capable of launching aeroplanes weighing 16 tons. These "mother ships" also serve a valuable secondary purpose as meteorological stations. The Germans intend to use Tencriffe as a station on their Atlantic services. The small aerodrome there is being rapidly enlarged, the work involving much blasting of solid rock and the filling up of hollows. British experimental flights over the North Atlantic will begin in May, but there is no intention of attempting a regular service this year, and it is extremely doubtful whether it will be possible before 1939. Great Britain is expected shortly to make a bid for the South Atlantic air service, over which French and German airlines are already operating, and the granting of a contract is expected to be the subject of an announcement shortly. In this year's Air Estimates provision as made only for experimental flights on the South Atlantic