FLYING-BOATS FIRST

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 250, 21 October 1937, Page 8

FLYING-BOATS FIRST

SERVICE ACROSS THE TASMAN LAND MACHINES LATER CAPTAIN TAYLOR’S VIEW NEW PLYMOUTH, Oct. 20. An unsolicited opinion from an expert regarding the type of ’planes that would best serve for the proposed transtasman air service and hope that New Plymouth would be the terminal were expressed in a letter to the New Plymouth Airport Board from Captain P. G. Taylor, the distinguished Australian aviator who has made several Tasman flights. After thanking the board for Its congratulations on his being awardee the Order of the British Empire for gallantry, which was the recognition of his heroism on a Tasman flight, Captain Taylor mentioned the Tasman 'planes and the airport. Day or Land ’Plane not Past “Though the immediate future indicates the use of flying-boats for the transtasman service, looking further ahead I am of the opinion that the day of the land machine for the purpose is by no means past,” Captain Taylor wrote. “When facing the facts of the situation in crossing oceans which normally are disturbed by heavy seas, any aircraft descending into the sea would be wrecked, whether land machine or flying-boat, I believe that the problem is to be attacked from the aspect of building an aeroplane which will not have to come down. The muiti-engined and highly efficient land machine has definite advantages in this way. “I hope that some day wa shall see New Plymouth as the New Zealand terminal of a transtasman land ’plane service.”