AIR VOYAGES OF THE FUTURE.

Hokitika Guardian, 21 May 1926, Page 4

AIR VOYAGES OF THE FUTURE.

TO AUSTRALIA IN 100 HOURS

(By Harry Harper)

At our great London air-port—the finest of its kind in the world—Lady -Maude Hoare, wife of Sir Samuel lfoare, the Air Minister, will christen for Imperial Airways to-morrow a new fleet of big Handley Page pfissenger’planes which embody all that has been learned in more than six years of commercial Hying between London and the Continent.

lliis is the latest sign-post along the path of aerial progress, merely cue of a number of developments which mark the beginning of an era of tremendous, almost fantastic, significance. Already plans are in hand, not only m this country but throughput tiro .Dominion's, which will make Empire flying, with all it implies, one of ihe most vital subjects to be considered by the Imperial Conference in October. BRINGING LONELY PEOPLE NEAR

The aim constantly before the e>cs of the pioneers of the air is a regular •service linking up the whole of our Empire by airways operating by night as well as day. Time; and space—the two great obstacles in commerce and in all human relations—will be overcome to mil extent which but a few short years ago would Rive seemed unbelievable. The business man desiring a reply Irom a Melbourne firm now has to exchange costly cables or wait two a,ml a. half months for a reply. The spine harrier exists between the mother and tlio son who seeks his fortune overseas, saddening many a parting with a. sense of isolation 'and bitolera hi e remo ten ess.

When by degress the organisation of our Empire air-linos has been completed rnd preliminary experiments nave been conducted, it should become possible for passengers to leave London on Monday morning and greet relatives in .Sydney by about the end of the same week; arid a host of people who. now have long periods of anxiety may bo able to reassure themselves as to the condition of relatives and friends in flic space of not more than about a fortnight.

flow near Empire flying is drawing will be brought home to the Imperial Conference by the fact that even while it is busy with its deliberations two gilant British airships—the largest of their type ever built—will no in construction for our first experiments in tlio non-stop transport of large numbers of passengers, and heavy loads of mails for thousands of miles over land and sea. ,

GREAT MACHINES NOW BUILT)!XC

1 be .statesmen attending the Conference' will probably be .able to see these leviathans in course of construction, and also to inspect tlio lingo shed and mooring-mast at Cnrdington, near Bedford, where our first great Empire airship station is being established. Nor will the foreshadowing of an Empire air age be confined to these vast lighter-tlian-air machines-. On the point of delivery at the same time will bo a new series of great tliroe-en-giued Do Havilland aeroplanes which lire being constructed specially for Imperial Airways for the 2,-lOOr’niles air-mail which is to connect Cairo willi Karachi, and to save a week in the transit o! a letter between England and Indin.

Our main air-line of Empire will in duo course stretch, on eastward till it rein lies Calcutta, Rangoon, and Port. Darwin, Australia. Operating in ac-curately-timed relays, and devouring distance by night as well as day, highspeed niail-’phiues will then flash tight through from London to Australia at 100 miles an hour, traversing 10,000 miles in not more than about 100 hours. Imagine what it will mean, in the fostering of Empire trade, when an urgent letter posted in London on Monday is delivered in Australia on Saturday I A BELAY A l(K OF UMPIRE.

We, with all our far-flung possessions, as Mr Alan Cobliam, Hie airman of Empire, reminds ns, have greater srope than any other nation for developing aviation. Flying should, in the yours to come, be our greatest asset and safeguard. Empires, history tells us. lias been knit by roads and by transport upon the sea. But in the next great phase power will pass from laud and sea to air, nnd the British Empire, if it is to maintain its heritage, must devote itself whole-hearted-ly to the institution of high-speed aerial routes. Vast long-range airships, and swift aeroplanes and seaplanes, should link up the Empire in a way impossible by anv other means.

Preparations are now being made, on a new basis of international cooperation, for i world-wide network of aerial rotes, and schemes are being developed which already enable exports to sketch, out time-schedules for complete round-the-world journeys by aeroplane express and airship liner.

Leaving London in the morning and rushing at 100 miles ail hour to Paris, world-travellers may expect to reach Constantinople the following morning and Cairo by midday. Then, in a luxurious, long-distance air-liner they will travel to Australia. The wide Pacific to San Francisco will be crossed in another great clipper of the clouds. After which the next stage, already established, will be by aeroplane express, New York being reached op the fifteenth day. - The Atlantic crossing to Europe will be by another great passenger airship, and air travellers will complete in'l7 days a globe-encircling journey which it took Jules Verne’s imaginary hero 80 days to accomplish.