AIR TRANSPORT

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19028, 30 May 1936, Page 2

AIR TRANSPORT

GREAT DEVELOPMENTS NEW GUINEA’S PROGRESS BRITISH DESIGNER’S VIEWS

Designer of 14 aeroplanes, one of which won n prize of £20,00 offered ),V the Air Ministry, and responsible for the technical construction of one of Britain’s largest monoplanes, MrW. S." Shiickleton, a leading British aeronautical consulting and designing, engineer and a writer upon technical matters in leading aviation journals, has been visiting Auckland m the course of a.Jirief tour through New • Zealand:" ' The London, firm, of which ■ he is principal has world-wide interests and connections. Mr. Shaekleton left England early ia January, and has since visited a number of aviation centres in the United States, and inquired into de- ' velopinonts in Australia and New Guinea. * He will leave for London via the United States by the mail boat to-day. ‘ After working as a designer tor, Louis Bleriot, the pioneer French airman and constructor, Mr. Shaekleton became chief designer for the linn oi William Beardmorc, Limited. while necupving this position he designed the Wee Bee. 1., a light two-seater • monoplane, which,won the Air Ministry’s first prize in the competition for light aeroplanes at LympneMn 1924. Previously Mr. Shaekleton had won the Daily Mail prize with another light aeroplane called the Anarch. ... A UNIQUE SERVICE r“ lH i;)28 Mfcefehackleton had charge Af the technical,, construction of the Beardmore Inflexible, a huge 17-ton all-metal monoplane, which was designed bv Dr. Bohrbach, the wellkndjUuGerinah: designer. This machine, which, was the largest in Great Britain at the time, was flown for about four .years ..mdL Atalk gradually destroyed •for experimental purposes. “Aviation has given an unique ser-vice-in-New Guinea, and nowhere else in the world, with two possible ex-i-eptions, is industry so dependent upon air transport,” said Mr._ Shaekleton, when speaking of his visit to New. Guinea. “The air has become virtually the only means of transport of passengers arid goods between the coast and the goldfields inland.” - Mr. Shaekleton said the parallels he iiad in mind were in the service given between Bolivia*'and Peru in the carriage of goods and" machinery to mining centres in the high country of the Andes, and in Northern Canada, where great areas had ho fail or road access. No atftFr services, however, approached the New Guinea air lines in the, quantity and variety' of freight carried, ’nor; in; the frequency of sorvice. * • RELIANCE ON AEROPLANES 1 There tvjorCfVx air lines in regular pperafion'fi-om the coastal centres over The wild and 'high country to the mining areas, added Mr. Shaekleton. All of them operated -without subsidy, freight rates varying between goods atrd goods, and company and tompanv, up to a maximum of 3$ P e F . fb. ; • The greatest single weight lifted so far had been- a 73001 b. stator for .the Bulolo power station, carried, by Guinea Airways in a multi-engined Junkers 31. • “Few*parts of the world have such ftomplete-reliance upon air transport as New"-".Guinea, ” said Mr/.Shackle(on. ‘‘.There, with rich ■ goldfields, which,Tan only be reached, short of vast expense, of* money- and energy, by air, aviation’ was recognised and accepted, as it were, overnight. ’ ’ ■ Mr. Shaekleton stated that aviation had made good headway in Australia hnd, with the powerful financial backing which had been assured by the recently-announced merger of several transport* interests, its progress could confidently be expected to be rapid and sound. He considered the Tasman Sea would be crossed by regular air services ia the near future, for, although the distance was 1200 miles, longer services than that were running or were under immediate contemplation.