AIR BEACONS

Hokitika Guardian, 22 February 1929, Page 7

AIR BEACONS

NIGHT FLYING IN AUSTRALIA

CONVEYANCE OF MAILS.

SYDNEY. February 7

If the authorities approve of the giant air beacon which Union Theatres. Lid., proposes to erect at its own expense and also to maintain, on top of the colossal State Theatre and shopping block in Market street, in the heart of the city, that big picture enterprise will be credited with a very graceful and practical gesture towards the furtherance of commercial aviation, by assisting to make night Hying safe, specially as it relates to the carriage of mails. Then? is an insistent d - maud that aeroplanes shall he . used more largely than at present for mail conveyance. The air beacon, fifty reefin height, -fdOIL above the street level, and flashing out a revolving beam of light for a distance of Id or ”() miles, would he a very nice advertisement for the State Theatre, which is to ho opened about April. But that, as Kipling says, is merely by the way. If. will make the towering new theatre a landmark all over the metropolis. Whether the Civil Aviation Department,. the Navigation Department, and the civic authorities will pass favour able judgment on the proposal, and deem if a suitable site for an air beacon remains to be semi. Night flying with mails and passengers will certainly never come into its own in Australia, as it has done in "Europe and in America, without air beacons. The need for them was specially emphasised at Richmond, New South Wales base off the Royal Air Force, when Ivingsford Smith and Ulm landed on their return Tasman flight. The air lighthouse crowning the State Theatre, assuming its installation is sanctioned, will he something like the famous Lindbergh beacon in the United States, and will, in fact be Sydney’s Eiffel lower in miniature. The question whether D will be called the Kings ford Smith or the Tlinkier beacon will be left to the popular choice of the public. This wil 1 bo another enterprising move which is likely to make opposition picture interests green with jealousy.

There will, of course, be air beacons traversing the route of the big I’ertliAdelaide service, to operate in a few months, but outside of that, the huge revolving light surmounting the State Theatre will bo the- only beacon of its kind in Australia. It is something of a commentary on the outlook in Australia on commercial aviation, especially when one thinks of the galaxy of brilliant airmen which the Commonwealth has produced. The late HamHawker, if or example; Sir Ross Smith and Sir Keith Smith, who blazed the air trail from England to Australia; Rarer and MeTntosh, whose amazing flight from London in a gimcrack machine is a matter of history; Beit Hinkler, the young Queenslander, whose solo da.sh from England to Australia in a light ’plane will always remain one of the world’s epic flights; Kings ford Smith and Ulm. whose great Pacific and Tasman flights added another brilliant page to aviation history ; Sir George Wilkins, and others. Notwithstanding these inspiring examples, Australia is a backward country as fains aviation is concerned. What has been accomplished is owing in the mn*n to private commercial enterprises and to aero clubs. As for the Royal Air Force, its story is one of tragic disasters.

What Australia needs is half a down practical air-iniiuleil politicians in the Federal legislature. The President ol the Aero C'lnh of New South Wales (Captain Geoffrey Hughes), who is an old war pilot,- aspired to Parliamentary honours at the latest federal elections, hut, unfortunately lor aviation, he was turned down at the selection ballots. Pew men have done more to promote' flying in Australia than t aptain Hue-lies, whose status the Commonwealth Government fittingly acknowledged when it appointed him as the mouthpiece of unofficial aviation interests at fhe hig international Air Coniferenee in Washington.