AIR TRANSPORT

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18254, 24 November 1933, Page 3

AIR TRANSPORT

GREAT GROWTH ABROAD MODERN AIR LINERS To many tho growth of commercial aviation m Europe is astonishing. But a little consideration convinces that it is not astonishing at all. It has simply been dictated (>y tile laws of progress. The aeroplane is the latest phase in the development of transport, grown up from the days of the horse, the galley, and the stage coach, writes Air. Hudson B'y.sli, of the Quotas Service, Queensland, ni the Sydney Morning Herald. J. have returned from a world tour using aerial transport exclusively, except across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. I have been able to inspect modern icquipinent in course of construction, and have made a close study of methods of operation. After flying in the Imperial \irways liner Astraea from Longreach to Karachi, I completed the journey to London by way of Imperial Airways regular service on which are employed the Handley Page Heracles machines carrying 38 passengers, and for the Mediterranean crossing Scopio class four-engine flying boats carrying 24 passengers. I flew from London to Paris in the Golden Clipper of the French service, a fast machine cruising at 145 miles per hour, from France to' Berlin with the same company in an old Farman three-engine iiachine; from Berlin to Amsterdam in a Luft-Ilansa owned Junkers machine, and from Rotterdam to London by a K.L.M. Fokker, arriving at Croydon at night round about 10.30 o’clock. During this tour I studied airports and general operations, and visited factories. In England I visited practically every aircraft and engine factory, and saw many interesting things. Tho new Short Bros.’ air liner being built for Imperial Airways is most impressive. It has a cabin wider than a Pnlman car, and is designed to provide tho greatest degree of speedy air travel comfort yet attempted. In Canada I saw the St. Hubert Airport, Montreal, where elaborate precautions are taken against cold by'steam-lieating of hangars, and aeroplanes are operated on either wheels or skis according to the weather. American aviation was full of interest, and T made a night flight from Chicago to Los Angeles. The flight, including a three hours hold-up owing to bad weather, and then flying through the tail-end of it, was 'most impressive, guided by the string of aerial lighthouses and radio beacons across the States. In Chicago I went right through the headquarters of United Air Lines, and in Los Angeles saw several startling new machines in the factories. American aviation is tho most spectacular of all because high speeds have been indulged in—at extra cost, of course—but to suit the specific needs of America and under the. unique conditions which the country has to offer. There is nothing so impressive in the world as America’s high-speed night operations. And there is nothing so impressive in the world as the big Handley Page 38-passenger machines operating between London and Paris and out on the Empire routes. By reason of these large machines, the comfort which they provide, backed up by a superlative service, air travel is coming strongly into its own.

During my whole tour, some 18,000 miles flown, I never saw a passenger airsick. This is due io increased ventilation efficiency, elimination of noise, the superior behavior of modern aircraft in bumps, and the excellent attention given passengers, such as keeping them warm or cool, as tho case may be, and the provision en route of thq right kind of refreshments. WORLD AIRLINES

Aviation is making enormous strides abroad. It is impossible for Australians at home, outside the sphere of this development to grasp its significance. The visit- of the Astraea supplied the only modern touch to Australia which has been seen for several years. The operations of Imperial Airways, K.L.M., Luft-liansa, Air France, and the three large American services (Pan-American Airways, United Air Lines, and Transcontinental and Western Air Inc.) speak for themselves.

In Europe, Imperial Airways take an easy first place as the result of a bold policy in developing the Empire airlines and the placing on their routes of the world’s largest and most comfortable planes in the Heracles machines. The Scopio class of flying-boats and Atalanta class of monoplanes are also most successful, and have played their part in placing Imperial Airways in the favorable position they are to-day—well on the road towards self-support, with a diminishing subsidy revenue per mile, and a growing] revenue per mile from passengers and freight. There is no commercial aeroplane m America to come anywhere near the excellence of the British Heracles machines, and I do not believe there is an aeroplane in America to compare with :,he Dragon Moth or the Leopard Moth, nor is there perhaps an engine to compare with the Gipsy Major. On the other hand, the United States has developed a type of high-speed commercial aircraft to fulfil the needs of long-distanco air travel and mail carriage. These high-speed machines are operated on cheap fuel, aviation high-octane gasoline at lOd per gallon. Lower grades can bo brought in America at 6£d to 8d per gallon. The price of the Australian tax alone is 7£d. Then the machines and engines, being bought in quantity, and operated close to the manufacturer, arc cheap in first cost and maintenance. These conditions demand, and havo allowed, a high speed typo of machine, and the Americans havo certainly produced an astonishing range of aeroplanes in tin's class, far in advance in regard to speed of any aircraft operated elsewhere in the world. A specialised demand has also produced America’s system of nightoperated passenger airways, a development of tho old air-mail systems.