THE ATLANTIC FLIGHT

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 200, 19 May 1919, Page 4

THE ATLANTIC FLIGHT

The news is transmitted to-day that an American seaplane—one of three Which set out from Newfoundland—has successfully covered the first and longest stage of the Atlantic flight by reaching the Azores. According to a cablegram the distance covered was twelve hundred miles, and if this is correct the journey was made at an ' average speed of approximately 85 miles an hour. A later message states, however, that a speed of a hundred miles an hour was maintained, and this would mean that a distance of more than 1300 miles was traversed. From Fayal Island, whero the American seaplane has halted, there is a flight of about 900 miles to Lisbon. If they successfully cover this shorter stage the American aviators will have the honour of being first to fly the Atlantic. It is disappointing that at time of writing no word has come through of any British competitor even setting out from Newfoundland. Presumably weather is the determining factor. Tlie route selected by the Americans is the shortest available. That which Mn. Hawker is expected to take in his Sopwith two-seater runs well to the northward of the Azores and involves a continuous trans-ocean flight of about 1900 miles to the south-western coast of Ireland, and a total journey of 2600 miles from Newfoundland to London. Recently four British machines had been entered for the Atlantic flight. Tho American arrangements, which include stationing destroyers at intervals of two hundred miles across the Atlantic, have been pushed ahead energetically and at great speed. At the moment of writing It is not absolutely _ certain that the honour of making the first Atlantic fligjit will fall to America, but indications certainly point in that direction. .As has been said, the weather, even when it favours a passage by way of the. Azores to Portugal, may militate against a flight by the longer and! morenortherly route direct to, the British Isles. It is interesting in connection with tho American attempt that a project was set on foot not long ago to institute an aerial service between America and Portu- , gal.in June. The route jmggested was from a point near New York to Lisbon, via 'the Azores, and from Lisbon to Franco or England. It is surprising, in view of tho performances credited to vessels of this type, that no attempt has yet been made to cross the Atlantic with a dirigible. A German Zeppelin is said to have made a trip of 7000 miles, during the war, from Bulgaria to Africa and back.