FIVE DAY TRIP TO SYDNEY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17350, 15 May 1924, Page 12

FIVE DAY TRIP TO SYDNEY.

“ London to Sydney in five days.’’ This, said Mr G. Holt Thomas, in a paper read recently before the Institute of Transport, London, had been possible at any time since 1917.

Mr Thomas discussed the future of air transport exhaustively. He has been an enthusiast on all matters connected with the air since it became apparent that its conquest had become a matter of time only.

While, said he, he wished to talk about comercial aviation, it was impossible not to consider its aspect- in relation to army needs. Where would motor transport have been at the be ginning of thelate war bad there not been a huge fleet of civil cars and ; lorries to fall back on? Even if the commercial aeroplanes would be useless for military purposes it would be the , means of producing skilled pilots, me- j chanics, designers, and constructors. j In August, 1919. Mr Thomas established the first scheduled flying service to Paris. At this time there were no data as to how regularly a service could be but when it was found that it proceeded safely and up to time month after month he would readily have prophesied a LondonAustralia service by the present year. As far back as 1917, when he read 3 paper on this same subject, the headlines of the papers had “ London to Tokyo in 3J Days” and “London to Sydney in Five Days.” Those times, he maintained, have been possible for several years. Passengers, who provide most of the receipts to-day, could almost be left out of the question, and there were prob ably few business men who would use the aeroplane for long distance work. But while a passenger woud not care to fly 5000 miles straight off, there was no difticuty in tw-entv separate pilots flying that distance in twenty stages, or even the 10.000-odd miles to Austral io. Mr Thomas deprecated the lowering of rates too much, either for passengers or mail. The first nation, be says, that makes aerial transport a paying proposition will be supreme in the world. Orcc it can be shown that the air mail is a profitable tiling Great Britain and the Empire will be covered with air routes. Taking into account everything that is necessary before any form of transport can be used, the ac-roplane is probably the cheapest. The aeroplane flies in free air without the necessity for roads or rails and their upkeep. America was forging ahead with her New' York-Son Francisco service, which was recently accelerated by night flying over a beacon-lit- route. But compared with the time saving effected in America, time saved in the British Empire to India and Australia would he much greater. The time across America had ben curtailed by two -lays nine hours. The saving by an Empire Air Mail would be reckoned in weeks. Apart from the conveyance of passengers and mail, bankers were recognising that the aeroplane was o suitable conveyance for bullion. Taking Paris ns an example for financial transactions : Cheques, bills, and many other documents were only payable on receipt, which meant that if documents and so on were received a day earlier, a day’s interest would be saved or earned. If £1.000,000. were passing between London and Paris, which by ordinary mail would arrive on the morrow instead of the same day, £l4O would be saved, the interest on £1.000.000 at 5 per cent, or enough to pay for four aeroplanes to Paris. To the banker in a large number of cases, time was money. And, talking of money. said Mr Thomas, mines in inaccessible regions might become paying propositions if their machinery. stores, and so on, could be conveyed by aeroplane, which is quite possible, though special ma- - chines mighr bare to be designed Survey by aerial photography is nlready a practical proposition. In the United States the Department of Agriculture is using the aeroplane for dusting tracts of cot ton-growing country. Sir Samuel Instone, of the Instone Air Line, came into aviation in 1919 because he saw that- by employing his’ -own machines between London and

the Continent lie could carry out transactions which his competitors could not. Mr Thomas is of opinion that Britain is lagging behind other nations in her air development. He believes in the aeroplane as superior to the airship in speed, and with mails speed is the vital point.