AIR PASSENGER COMFORT

Waikato Times, Volume 121, Issue 20125, 22 February 1937, Page 4

AIR PASSENGER COMFORT

CONTRAST BETWEEN FLIGHTS. GIANT AIR LINER “ CANOPUS.” What a difference between a passenger flight to-day and a similar experience 25 years ago! Recently a passenger in “ Canopus,” the new 18-ton luxury flying-boat of Imperial Airways which is now on regular service in the Mediterranean, interested his fellow travellers by recalling that as far back as 1911 he had the temerity to make a short flight as a passenger in an early type of prewar biplane. That machine of 25 years ago carried just its pilot and a passenger. The latter sat precariously on an open framework, exposed to all the winds that blew, while the low-powered machine swayed and pitched disconcertingly as it flew along slowly near the ground. Twenty-five years ago! And now to-day! The passenger who had sat out on that open framework in 1911, clinging to the nearest struts, reclined to-day in comfortable armchair in a well-heated and ventilated promenade saloon, with a steward at his elbow, and on the table before him a meal which any hotel might have been proud to serve. On thing, particularly, struck this passenger when contrasting his experiences of flying in 1911 and flying in 1936. The queer box-kite apparatus in which he had ascended in 1911 went bumping and swaying across the aerodrome with a roar from its engine before it could be induced to leave the ground. As for “ Canopus ” great Empire flying-boat, her take-off was described by this passenger in the following words: “ The drum of the engines quickened a little—that was all. The next minute I saw the shore slipping away from us. A white plum of spray fanned out astern. Then the water fell back as we were air-borne, climbing at a smooth, easy angle.” Another contrast. Whereas in that crude early-type machine of 1911 a passenger was almost deafened by the roar of the engine while flying, and , had his breath driven almost from his body by 1 lie rush of wind, in a great modern ship of the air like “ Canopus” there is very little sensation of speed. Yet whereas that early-type machine was flying at only about 50 miles an hour, “ Canopus ” is capable of rushing through the air at approximately 200 miles an hour. As the passenger already mentioned put it: “ One can just hear the murmur of the engines and, lounging back in one’s chair, one can talk to the man across the table without even raising one’s voice. Only the sighing of the wind outside : makes one realise that the aircraft j is moving*.” And what a difference between the i landing* of an aircraft of 1911 and one of 1936. Those old machines came steeply down and, after making their contact with the ground, bumped and swayed gradually to a standstill. “ Canopus,” as a contrast, alights so smoothly that a descent has actually been effected before some of the passengers know anything* about it. There is no steep down-glide—no sensation whatever that “ the floor is falling away.” The tilt as the great flying-boat comes flown is barely noticeable. Only the swish of spray tells of the actual contact with the water, and then there is a gentle glide along* the surface until the big ves- j ael conies to rest.