IMPERIAL AIRWAYS MAKE PROGRESS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17837, 4 May 1926, Page 11

IMPERIAL AIRWAYS MAKE PROGRESS.

J LINERS ARE NOW MULTI-ENGINED.

CARRY ANYTHING FROM PIG IRON TO SILK FROCKS.

LONDON, March 18. All the scheduled services of Imperial Airways will be run from the end of this month with twin-engined or three-engined aircraft, and the existing fleet of single-engined aeroplanes, with three exceptions, will be marked for disposal. The decision is the result of a new policy of developing large aircraft with more than one power > unit.

The three Handley Page Rolls-Royce twin-engined 12-seaters and the threeengined Handley Page, with one RollsRoyce and two Siddley Puma engines, are being retained; and the new machines coming into service are the Handley Page Hampstead (with three Jaguar air-cooled engines), capable of holding 14 passengers,, and four Handley Page AVIO 14-seater machines with twin Napier Lion engines. In addition, the two Argosies, built by ArmstrongWhietworth aircraft, and each fitted with three Siddeley Jaguar engines (a total of 1.200 h.p..), will be available at the end of April to strengthen the summer services. These are IS-seater aircraft, and carry a useful load of 4,5001 b. The two D.H. 50 four-seater machines, the type on which" Mr Cobham has made bis long-distance flights, will be retained for special charters, and the Vickers-Vulcan six-seater, with a Napier Lion engine will also be kept as a reserve.

The new fleet will mark the most progressive step maeffe by Imperial. Airways since its formation, and should not only lead to increased relibility and safety, but should also reduce the operating costs, in relation to the revenue The summer service will come into operation on the same date as Summer time (April IS), and from that date as the fares on the London-Paris route will revert to the summer figure of £6 6s singe, and £ll lls return. No special Easter excursion rate are being made, but the public will still have the advantage of the present low fares to Paris of £5 5s single and £lO return. During the. present month the machines have yarned some curious contrasts in cargo, the freight varying from pig-iron to silk dresses. Pigiron to the amount of a quarter of a ton was urgently wanted in Brussels as a sample in negotiations for a big contract; and the silk dresses, bought in Lyons on the afternoon of March 11, were on sale in London by the afternoon of the next day.