FLOATING AIRFIELDS IN MID-OCEAN

Southland Times, Issue 25739, 1 August 1945, Page 5

FLOATING AIRFIELDS IN MID-OCEAN

Successful Use During War LONDON, July 30. Floating airfields in mid-ocean have been used successfully during the war. This has now been revealed by an Admiralty spokesman. For many years airline operators dreamed of an aerodrome in the middle of the ocean on which planes could alight to refuel, or in the event of mechanical failure. Now a team of Admiralty research workers has devised a floating steel structure on which some of the heaviest type of land-based "planes have landed and taken off.

Although the exact location of the experimental models has not been disclosed, the progress which has been achieved justifies the hope that a type suitable for use in the mid-Atlantic will eventually be developed, although it is not yet possible owing to the difficulty of overcoming the effect of wave motion.

"rite steel structure supporting the runway is built on hundreds of pontoons which move individually, allowing to some extent for movement of the water.

The Admiralty also announced another secret device which was used during the war for the quick salvage of shipping—a rail gun which, carrying an extensive charge, drives an inch and a-half steel peg through two halfinch • steel plates in the same way as riveting. This method, which was used in raising several ships in the approaches to Antwerp harbour, is likely to speed up salvage operations after the war.