ACROSS PACIFIC

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18759, 16 July 1935, Page 2

ACROSS PACIFIC

AERIAL SERVICES “No DEFINITE MOVE” FLYING THE TASMAN SEA "! know of no ilclinito move- for a tr.ms-Pacilie air service ami 1 J'eel eon fident- that .Mi- ~-illiam Roth. president of the Matson Navigation Company. did not make the reported announcement that Pan-A meriean Airways intends within the next two years to inaugurate an air mail express and passenger service to Australia and New Zealand via Samoa.'’ This statement, was made on the arrival at Auckland hy Mr Harold Catty, the Australian born air navigator who is technical adviser to the lAnted States Army Air Corps. •‘Of course such a service is a possibility.-' he said. "It should lie rememberer, however, that Pan-American’s Pacific services will remain in the pioneering stage for some time and will lie subject, to continual experimentation and further development. There are many things we can learn only by living under actual Pacific conditions in which forces will be encountered that cannot he forseen in the experimental shops. It. is my belief that. trans-Pacilie flights on aeeount ol the long distance between stops will make high altitude Hying economic. KXPF.IH.M EXTA !.• EI.IGHTK •'One of the main reasons for the recent experimental tlights from California to Hawaii and Midway Island by the Pan-American new (flipper aeroplanes was to study air currents, weather conditions and to test radio equipment. Valuable data is being eompih'd and this will lie available to any New Zealand operators interested. American designers arid manufacturers are working at high pressure 1 to cope with the big demand for swift, safe machines to rover the long distances on ini er-na! ion l-outes.’‘ Pan-American experts claimed that multi-engined amphibians wove necessary for 1 1 aiis-oeean tlights. hut there was another school of opinion which claimed that multi-engined land aeroplanes were jnsi as safe for t raUs-ocean work. it was significant that the service to the Ear East from Ear. 1 Francisco was developing rapidly and a weekly service woiiid he run before long. Foureugiiiod Martin Hying boats were used. The distance to Honolulu was 2400 miles, and for that porlion of the service most passengers would be carried. There would be a more frequent service for that portion of the route than for any other S| ) that machines with less carry - capacity would he needed for the voyage on from Honolulu. Snell services to lie payable must have mail eon tracts. TASMAN SKA Referring to the Tasman Sea Mr (kitty said a regular service was feasible if the light type of machine were used. It could lie either a Hying boat: or land 'plane, and must have at least two engines with "one engine performance." so that in the event of one engine rutting out the other would lie sufficient, to (ravel on. A four-engined machine should be capable of Hying with three engines. "It would he poor organisation In inaugurate such a service without, the! establishment of radio beacons," said I Mr (tatty. ‘‘They are an almost indispensable aid."’