NEW AIR LINER

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20016, 15 August 1939, Page 5

NEW AIR LINER

BRITISH EXPERIMENT

SUB-STRATOSPHERE TRIPS

LONDON, August 2. An air liner which will carry 24 passengers in a high standard of comfort at over fOur miles a minute non-stop for 3000 miles in the sub-stratosphere,-is one of-- three -32tori laridplanes entering experimental service on the British world routes next year. \ r ’ ’ Short Brothers, at Rochester, are now developing three monoplane designs, provisionally known by the Air Ministry’s specification number “14/38.” They are externally similar, but two will have a maximum cruising speed of 250 miles an hour at 10,000 feet and the third is intended for the sub-stratosphere. • It will have a cruising .speed of 275 miles an hour at. a height of 25,000 ft. maximum, and will be fourengined. . ■Night flyers will be accommodated in four-passenger compartments. The aeroplane is equipped v/ith a buffet, lounge, and promenade deck.. The passengers in the sub-stratos-phere model occupy the “pressurised ’ fuselage, where 'air is supplied through superchargers. It will maintain an internal atmosphere parable with that at sea level. The . air liners carry a crew of seven, for whom comfortable quarters abaft the pilot’s seats are provided, and also a rest corner when they are off duty.