BENEATH THE WINDSOCK

Evening Star, Issue 22447, 18 September 1936, Page 3

BENEATH THE WINDSOCK

AVIATION IN AMERICA. The remarkable development and detailed organisation of air travel in the United States were commented upon by Mr O. S. Grainger, of Melbourne, who was returning to Australia after a trip to England and the United States. “ America must be complimented on her air services,” Mr Grainger said. “ We flew from Los Angeles to Chicago at night, and it was a revelation to find the big 14-seater Douglas liners running to exact schedule, guided by flashing beacons on the ground and also by the radio-beacon system.” In some cities, the airport was in the centre of densely-populated areas, and passengers were amazed at the ease with which the pilots brought their speedy ships in with unfailing accuracy, he continued. There was no sense of risk or any feeling of trepidation. The craft came down unerringly, like a bird. . . In 15 hours the American Continent could be crossed by air, Mr Grainger said. People boarded the aeroplanes at New York, went to sleep in comfortable berths, and woke next morning in Los Angeles. The craft were wonderfully quiet, steady, and well appointed, and the fares were extremely reasonable, being only 5 or 10 per cent, in excess of railway charges for an equal distance. There was also a generous luggage allowance, part of which, about 351 b per passenger, was sent by air and the rest by fast train. “The comfort of passengers is an important consideration, and those who patronise the air line are well cared for,” Mr Grainger added. He said that wheli the aeroplane in which he was flying reached Kansas City, the temperature was round 115 degrees and the heat was suffocating after the cool conditions experienced at 10,000 ft in swift flight. Passengers who had not flown on the line before expected that the interior of the aeroplane would be like an oven when they re-entered it after it had been standing on the flying field for half an hour, but they found that the company had a portable airconditioning plant which had been used to keep the cabin cool and fresh. THE TASMAN SERVICE. With suitable machines now available the commencement of a transtasman air service now waits only on the decision of the Governments concerned to grant an adequate subsidy to the company which undertakes to operate the service, said Major A. Murray-Jones, representative in Australia for the de Havilland Aircraft Company. “In their latest flying boats—the new Short model, for example—the British designers have produced the fastest as well as themost comfortable machine of that type in he world,” said 'Major Murray-Jones. “This is the type of aircraft best suited for a transtasman service, because the designers, true to the British tradition, have not sacrificed comfort, safety, and economy for miles per hour. I do not think, however, that any company could make a transtasman air service pay its way, for the present at any rate.” _ First costs in the purchase of machines and their provision and organisation of repair shops and ground staffs would be heavy, he added. Government subsidies would be neces,4hry for any company which undertook the work. The transtasman service would not be unique in •’his. The companies operating air services in America received as much as 30 cents a mile subsidy from the Government. Otherwise not one of them would be paying iks way. All that could be said about the transtasman service at present, therefore, was that the machines—the best in the world for the job—were there, pilots and mechanicians were plentiful, and the demand for such a service was there, too. As soon as the Governments concerned decided that they could afford to "ay a subsidy to keep the service going it would start, he was quite sure. Probably Imperial Airways would operate it. BY SEA AND AIR. A fresh illustration has just been provided of co-operation between the transport services of sea and air. One morning, when the Cunard-White Star liner Queen Mary arrived at Cherbourg at 8.30 a.m., she was met by an express air liner of Imperial Airways. A party of passengers was transferred from the sea liner to the air liner, ; id at 9 a.'m. the air liner left Cherbourg on a highspeed journey across Europe, via Paris, to Zurich, Munich, Vienna, and Budapest, reaching the latter city at 7.20 p.ra.-r—eight hours and 50 minutes later. Business men arriving from America, and with urgent appointments in London or on the Continent, often wireless from mid-Atlantic for a “ special ” of Imperial Airways to pick them up at Cherbourg. This means that, after a, line- has reached tha't port early in the morning, a passenger can be rushed to London in time for a day’s business in the metropolis, whereas if he came on to Southampton in the liner, and then up by boat-train, he would not be in London till the evening of that particular day. Passengers needing to travel farther afield, and who employ a fast air “ special,” can, after arriving at Cherbourg in the morning, now reach cities far across Europe by the same afternoon or evening.