AVIATION PROGRESS

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 57, 23 March 1937, Page 5

AVIATION PROGRESS

-Press Assooiation.)

Great Strides Made In 34 Years ORDEAL NO LONGER

(By Telearapli-

AUCKLAND, Last Night. "It is a far cry from the days of Wilbur aad Otville Wright to the present, yet aviation iB oaly 34 yeats of age, hnd it is most iateresting to see what the pioneers did With their poor equipment, ' ' said Mr Harold Gatty, the reptesentatiVe ia Australia and Netv zealaad of Pan-American Airways, whea addressing members of the Auckland Rotary ClUb. "We are apt to forget them now, when we are talking of trans-ocean flightSj yet even the last six years, not a very lOng period, has been a loag time in aviation. "Civil aviation in the United States ia more advanced than ia any other part of the world," he continued. "It is a country Of long-distances, which lends itself to the development of the same type of aircraft for civil as for military flying." It was really an ordeal to fly across the United States in 1927, when Fokker eraft Were in use, Mr Gatty said. The Ford aeroplaneS were the next step forwardj and then eame the famous Douglas machines which had revdlutionised air transpoft On laad routes and were extensively used ahd followed in other couhtries. Ait transport of to-day oWed & great debt to the pioneers. People in NeW Zealand ^j.d not realise how UitiCh the friendship of the United StateS CbUld mean to them, he added, not only from a commercial viewpoint, but frdm titie aspect of defence as well. He couid not visualise English-speaking natidds ever being at war and in event of a future War elsGwhere, it was possibie that the Pacific might be the only route open between New Zealand and Great Britain.