Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. THURSDAY, JULY 29, 1937. ARCTIC AIR ROUTE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 57, Issue 246, 29 July 1937, Page 4

Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. THURSDAY, JULY 29, 1937. ARCTIC AIR ROUTE.

The prediction that a regular service between Russia and the United States via the North Pole will be practicable in two years, opens up interesting possibilities. One of the factors mentioned by the Soviet airmen who have made the journey is that constant ice will eliminate the dangers attendant on trans-ocean flights. This opinion >s based on actual experience, because twice within a month Russian airmen have performed the journey. The accomplishment of this journey, in a little over sixty hours in each case, emphasises the vast strides that have been made in aviation within the last years, and emphasises also the general revolution in transport that this century has witnessed. A generation acquainted with the trials, difficulties and dangers of the expeditions to Polar regions undertaken by Nansen, Peary, and Amundsen stands amazed, even in this age of scientific marvels. The prospect of Moscow being brought within three days of San Francisco and within six flying days of New Zealand almost staggers the imagination even at . a moment when a two-way service has started over the North Atlantic. These flights of the Russians have had their hazards of course, but they have been far from being hit-or-miss ventures, because of the network of meteorological stations the Soviet authorities have established on the shores and islands of the Arctic Ocean, the result of years of effort, and because of the fact that a Russian party is practically “in residence” at the North Pole at the present time. The "settlement of the expedition in the Central Polar Basin is moving with the ice, just as did Nansen’s ship, Fram —it is now over 100 miles from its original point —- but that is a mere detail. The preparations for the proposed service are being made with due regard to all necessary scientific data. The party now at the Pole is entrusted with the important task of collecting meteorological information that will co-ordinate the work of the stations previously established. Further experimental flights are to be made and when the project is put into operation it should have as chief elements in prospective success the thoroughness which has characterised all the Soviet’s development of its air services.