AERIAL DEVELOPMENT

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXI, Issue 19008, 8 May 1924, Page 4

AERIAL DEVELOPMENT

The news cabled from London this morning, that the Imperial Company at Croydon is inaugurating an aftertheatre service of huge night-flying aerial sleeping cars between London and Paris, and the still more important announcement of the coming in the near future of an all-red service between London and »Sydney, are the latest indications of the unusual degree in which aerial activity is manifesting itself in various parts of the world. In the middle of March, America started a world-tour epidemic by dispatching four United States flying machines on a 30,000 miles cruise across Alaska, the Aleutian Islands, Japan and Asia. This ambitious enterprise was generally regarded as part of the aerial demonstration recently held in America to impress that nation with the need of augmenting its strength in the air. The long-project-ed British circumnavigatory flight was commenced a few days later with a specially selected amphibian machine. Four Portuguese aeroplanes were next billed to leave Lisbon for a lengthy tour, and we should hear at any time now that the Zeppelin airship ZR3 has cast its moorings at Fricdrichshaven and set off on its trans-Atlantic voyage to the aerodromes of the United States Government, which has purchased it. America seems determined to secure the best types of dirigibles, and does not hesitate to buy the latest ideas from foreign nations. Some time past it purchased a giant airship from Great Britain, and another almost as large from Italy (both of which exploded disastrously early in their career); and now the Zeppelin Company, which has built 116 air cruisers to date, is to be given an American trial. Captain Amundsen completing his arrangements for his adventurous flight across the North Pole. He expects to leave Spitzbergen in a large Dornier “Whate” type of aeroplane towards the end of July. Although the Burney airship scheme for linking Britain and the Dominions has been temporarily held up, British orders to the aircraft industry this year are expected to total at least £4,500,000, and the British Government is experimenting with large allmetal aeroplanes, and with commercial dirigibles suitable for Empire routes and long non-stop reconnaissances. Amongst the noteworthy foreign commercial air companies is the Madrid service, which is devising a regular airway between London and Buenos Ayres, and is anchoring im-. mense rafts (equipped with aerodromes and hotels) for alighting in the mid-Atlantic. It is evident that this year is to be marked as an important milestone in the progressive march of aerial development, for undoubtedly much useful information should be gleaned from so extensive and varied programme of aerial adventures, experiments and trials.