AIR LINERS COMING

Taranaki Daily News, 7 September 1935, Page 19 (Supplement)

AIR LINERS COMING

OCEAN “GREYHOUNDS” OF FUTURE. BIGGER AND FASTER EVERY DAY. Ships, aeroplanes, bridges, skyscrapers, every day in every way they grow bigger and bigger. When the 80,000-ton Normandie, overa sixth of a mile long, approached Havre after twice breaking the Atlantic record, she was welcomed by a flying-boat, the Lieutenant de Vaisseau Paris, one of the biggest that had ever taken air and sea. This six-engined seaplane, with double-decked hull and cabins for passengers, is as remarkable in its own element as the Normandie in hers. But the Normandie’s speed is a portent that will remain so unless and until the Queen Mary beats her, for the 160,000 horse-power of her motors drove her across the ocean at a speed which for a day or more together exceeded the speed limit ordered by Mr. Hore-Belisha

in England’s built-up areas. She cut down the record for the Atlantic voyage to less than four hours over four days, and the four-day voyage is clearly in sight. For a whole day she sped at 35 miles an hour. ' Such a speed is trifling compared with a plane’s, and the planes, like the ships, are preparing to carry more. They are beginning to drop the name of plane for that of air liner, and no one doubts that at no distant day they will become the new greyhounds of the Atlantic. The French scar lane is intended for long-distance ocean routes, but it has yet to come into regular service. The great Hannibal planes regularly in use by Imperial Airways carry 40 passengers at a normal speed of 100 miles an hour. Yet these will soon be beaten by the biggest land air liner in existence, now being built at Coventry for the same company. This new Armstrong-Whitworth monoplane will carry 56 passengers at a speed which will not be less than 160 miles an hour and may be much more. Three and a half tons of passengers may seem triflling by comparison with what the Normandie can carry, but this is only a beginning. After all, the ocean liners had 70 years start.