Aids For Commercial Flying

Southland Times, Issue 23180, 22 April 1937, Page 4

Aids For Commercial Flying

A.splendid record of'regularity is shown by the statistics covering the first year’s operations of Union Airways, Ltd., which were printed in The Southland Times yesterday. Of 734 scheduled trips between Palmerston North and Dunedin 727 trips (99.05 per cent.) were completed. The seven flights which were not completed were made on days when the weather was such as to introduce an element of risk. The number of passengers carried during the year was 7193 —an average of nearly 10 passengers a trip; and the quantity of freight, baggage and mail reached the total of 214,726 pounds—an average of nearly 300 pounds a trip. ' These figures are both a tribute to the dependability of the main trunk air service and evidence of an encouraging growth. The inauguration, within a few months, of daily trips between Wellington and Auckland should give the service a further stimulus. But most of all it will benefit from the system of radio communications which is to be instituted at the request of the Government by a committee of experts known as the Aeradio Committee. The main features of this system were summarized in a Press Association message printed last week. It will provide for communication between the ground and aeroplanes in flight (and between one aeroplane and another), for the transmission of meteorological and other advices to aerodromes and aeroplanes, for the installation of radio aids to navigation, and for rapid communication between aerodromes. Altogether the new system will mark an important step towards the ideal of safe and completely regular commercial flying. Recent investigations by a committee of the United States Senate have shown that inadequate radio communications and bad weather forecasting have been the principal causes of accidents to passenger air-liners. Although the record of American Airways has been extraordinarily good—over the nine years from January 1, 1928 to January 1, 1937 the number of passenger fatalities was only one for every 2,000,000 miles of flight—the committee has recommended the immediate appropriation of over 12,000,000 dollars to make further improvements in the existing aids for aviation, advanced as they already are in comparison with those of other countries. Its findings have recognized, that the most important single factor impeding air safety in the United States has been the lack of balance between the flying equipment of the operators, “which is the best in the world”, and that of the Government, “which is mediocre.” The inquiry by the committee was prompted by a series of bad crashes in 1936 which have severely shaken the confidence of the American public in flying. It is satisfactory to see that the New Zealand Government is taking action in advance of trouble, not because of it.