TRANS-ATLANTIC AIR RIVALRY

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22515, 24 September 1938, Page 23

TRANS-ATLANTIC AIR RIVALRY

British, German, and American Activity

ONE Thursday recently New Yorkers had the satisfaction of reading the London newspapers published on. Wednesday. This was made possible by the enterprise of British publishers in putting batches of papers aboard the pickaback seaplane Mercury for .the trans-Atlantic crossing, states the New York correspondent of the London “Observer.’' The papers sold in the streets like hot cakes, an after-theatre crowd paying as much as a dollar a copy. Survey flights such as the Mercury made in preparation for transAtlantic passenger and mail services are now in full swing. At Port Washington, on Long Island, about 100 journalists and officials greeted the British seaplane. Next day journalists and officials went out again to meet the German seaplane Nordmeer, engaged on a similar mission. The Nordmeer was also catapulted from a mother ship, the Schwabenland, which discharged the seaplane in the Azores, whence it travelled non-stop to New York,

at least, New York’s oceanic airport, Port Washington. This lap is 2397 miles, as compared with the FoynesMontreal lap of 2715 miles flown by the Mercury. Both the British and the Germans intend to make other survey flights. The French, too, will inaugurate their own trials soon, so that, judging from the full schedule announced by these three nations. Port Washington, which is the air-base

of Pan American Airways, will be a busy trans-Atlantic airport this summer. . .' Meanwhile Pan American, which long ago completed its trans-Atlan-tic surveys, announces that it will be ready to go into' scheduled transoceanic service “by the end-of the summer.” Six super clippers are in commission, which will 'be the largest transport aircraft in the world. The first is still undergoing

engineering tests at the Boeing Aeroplane Company’s base at Seattle. But preliminary water and air tests indicate that these giant 6000 horsepower 74-passenger flying-boats will exceed every specification set for them. The first flight will .be via the Azores to Lisbon. In time the service will be extended to England, but under the reciprocal arrangements which have been concluded ■with Imperial Airways both systems will start this direct service simultaneously. Reciprocity will even go to the extent of matching schedules. How frequent they will be has not yet been settled finally. Over the Pacific Pan • American maintains a weekly service, but the 9000-mile Pacific is, of course, less travelled than the - 3000-mile Atlantic. There will also be a free and full interchange of radio and meteorological assistance. At the same time the services will be in brisk competition for the coming trans-Atlantic air business. And it looks as if it will be big business. So many flying-boats are in commission in America and Europe, so much attention is paid to the survey flight's, that popular imagination has been stirred about the potentialities of trans-Atlantic traffic. The prospect is held out of a rapidly approaching future when the trans-Atlantic skies will be as crowded with aircraft as the seas are with surface craft. Indeed, Howard Hughes, the round-the-world flyer, says that the time is coming soon when the flying-boat will supplant the ocean liner. Air and Sea Rivalry Such visions are not shared by other aeronautical experts. It is true that the seat-mile cost is cheaper on the aeroplane than on the liner. Also, unlike some other operations, the larger the air unit the more efficient the air'service. Still, the development of trans-oceanic flying, it is felt, is bound to be slow enough to keep the shipping from . worrying about ponderable competition. This is the gist of individual opinions: gathered from organisations interested in aircraft development. In answer to a question about airsea rivalry; one official replied with 1 another question: Has the CroydonParis service destroyed your • railroad and shipping business between the two capitals? Still, those who read Wednesday’s' London newspapers in a New York restaurant. on Thursday felt as if a miracle had been enacted, even though the miracle might not be as ..transforming in the foreseeable future as is currently expected.