EIGHTY HOURS APART

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23690, 23 December 1938, Page 4

EIGHTY HOURS APART

LONDON AND VANCOUVER When the great airway across Canada from Montreal to Vancouver is fully open in 1939 and the transatlantic service is in operation, Vancouver (writes Major C. C. Turner in the Daily Telegraph and Morning Post) will be within 80 hours of London. For some months mails have been regularly carried between Vancouver

and Winnipeg, and on some branch lines, at s.x cents (3d) for the first ounce and five cents for each ounce extra. Almost perfect reliability has been attained. Trial mail runs are now being made on the eastern section, and over the entire route special freight consignments have been carried. The programme for the visit of the King and Queen to Canada has not yet been settled in detail, but it is expected to include a visit to the Montreal terminus of the line. The route, on which there are more than 100 aerodromes and landing fields, and a complete radio, lighting, and

weather reporting system, is 2500 miles long. The schedule will provide for 19 hours on the westward run, and 21 hours from west to east, the difference being due to the prevailing winds. There will be seven intermediate stops. From Botwood, the airport lot the transatlantic air route, the distance to Montreal is 890 miles.

Eventually there will be a British air route across the Pacific from Vancouver. but before that is accomplished it will be possible, by taking the American air line from Vancouver to San Francisco, to fly all the way round the world, linking up at Hongkong

with the Imperial Airways system. For the trans-Canada line, in addition to various types which have been used on sections, 15 Lockheed 14’s are beuig delivered This fleet i costing more than £300,000. The type of airliner is similar to that used by British Airways on the London-Lisbon service, and. modified for military purposes is the type of which 200 have been ordered by the British Air Ministry As a commercial type it carries 14 passengers, cruising at about 230 m.p.h. It is a twin-engined machine.