Wairarapa Daily Times [Established 45 Years.] THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1919. AIR TRAVEL.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 45, Issue 13983, 20 November 1919, Page 4

Wairarapa Daily Times [Established 45 Years.] THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1919. AIR TRAVEL.

No business man in these days can afford to remain ignorant of what is being done and considered in the region of the air. The war has wrought evils innumerable .and irreparable, but at the same time it has be'en the cause of not a few new discoveries, and the crucible in which some things, which but for it might have remained semi-tried or not tried at all, have now had a most thorough testing and been proved capable of such service to man as was before questioned and questionable. Conspicuous amongst these is the matter of air travel. Men still manage to meet with fatal accidents in this work, but it is universally recognised that these are by no means a necessary adjunct. They are indeed as avoidable as accidents are at sea. Hence the absolute certainty that the next decade will revolutionise travel in various ways. Four things have to be considered specially in this connection. They are safety, speed, carrying power and cost. We have just said that safety can be assured, and need not dwell further on that. With regard to speed the aeroplane has the advantage over the airship, but at pro- i

sent the airship can boast the greater staying power. It can depend on covering a stretch of 1000 miles without coming down; the aeroplane must descend after 400 or 500. The greater vessel, however, cannot as yet reckon on a speed of more than 60 miles an hour. At a pinch the aeropalne can double that, and perhaps do a little better. For passengers in a hurry, therefore, the heavier than air machine will have the advantage, and will bej specially useful over the immense spaces of our* farflung empire, across the broad stretches of the Australian continent, over the wide prairies of Canada, the vast districts of India, and still more, when absolutely reliable, over the stretches of sea which lie between. As yet the airship can carry far the bigger load. One of 60 tons gross could have half that weight as cargo, and in consequence the aeroplane for the time' being is out of it as a weight-carrier. But experience will show whether this musf necessarily be always so. Planes sufficiently big to carry 40 or 50 passengers are already in existence, and the practical certainty is that in the air, as on the water, the tendency, to increase in size will continue. Rapidity in movement should tend to reduction of fares in time, although at first speed will have to, be paid for. But as there are no rails tobe laid up , above, and.no road-beds to be kept in order, the time should come ■when air travel shall bo so cheap that he who will may ride. Tennyson's vision of aerial navies grappling in the upper air has- come and gone. We trust it will never be seen again. The newer and better .vision of great commercial fleets uniting mankind in one immense brotherhood is infinitely more to be desired, and for that we shall have novery long time to wait.