AUSTRALIAN AIR SERVICES

Hokitika Guardian, 25 February 1929, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN AIR SERVICES

LINKING UP CAPITALS

KINGS FORD SMITH AND ULM

SYDNEY, Feb. 14

Present imliciilions in Sydney, whore tlio whole ol' the organisation is being planned. is that it will ho possible to begin some time next October the big passenger and mail and freight air service over the Melbourne, Albury. Uanberra, Sydney, Newcastle, Lismore. and Brisbane route.

The founders of the entorpir Squadron-Leader Kingsfmd Smith and Flight Lieutenant Uim. have with them, among others. Lieutenant Litchfield, and Mr McWilliam. of New Zealand. who accompanied them on the Tasman iliglit, and also will he with them on the big {light to England. It is hoped later to establish services between Australia and New Zealand, between Melbourne. Launceston, and Hobart, ai d between Brisbane and New ouiiiea and other parts ol Commonwealth territory, as well as to equipu timately a factory for the production, ol aircraft in Australia. To launch sue., an industry ought not he impossible, with the right men, and with Australian natural woods and steelworks on the spot. Youthful-looking linn possesses keen business attributes rarely found in an airman of note. L..S brains largely are the dynamic force behind this big air development. For the Mel hour ne-Brisbane service, which will serve populations of more than 3,000,00 P and will operate four times each way every week, rain or shine, there will be several big trimotor monoplanes practically idciiti in type with the Southern Cross, and with the luxurious machines on the air mail service from Amsterdam to Batavia, a distance of (5150 miles. They will roar through space and cross three big States as well as Federal territory, behind engines each of 220 h.p., which will give them a bigger driving force than the Southern Cross. The secret ol the success of “Smithy” and Ulm as airmen lies largely in the fact that these two hard-headed young men have always observed the safety first rule. 'They decline to risk their hecks unduly, or their reputations as sale fliers, simply to provide a sensation for the pubiic. Oil this new air service they will continue to keep this good rule before them as their lodestar. Every pilot engaged for the service will be required, for example, to take a special training course under Kingston! Smith in practical flying of the types of aircraft to operate—incidentally they will he all-British—and in night flying and the use of modern flying instruments. He also proposes to fly with the pilots while the service is in its preliminary stages. Another iucc which will be comforting to passengers is that the machines will hot have to traverse a distance of more than 400 miles on a non-stop flight at any time. These will he easy stages, since the same type of machine—the Southern Cross —has non-stop mileage records ranging from 1600 miles, on the Richmond w.S.W.) to Christchurch “hop,” to 3650 miles, in the first of its two attempts of the world’s endurance record, when it was in the air without a stop for more than 50 hours. Another comforting fact is that trimotor land types of aircraft experience forced landings, according to statistics only once in every 1,680,000 miles. The leasing of hangar spate for.private aircraft, and the maintenance and repair of.it, are also in the scheme of tilings in connection with this big enterprise. There is ample room even now in Sydney for more hangar space, lor, at Mascot Aerodrome to-day there are more aeroplanes in operation than can be comfortable housed hv existing buildings. This new service will he another step towards making Australians conscious of the fact that they have an ideal diving country, and one that knows not the blizzards and snowstorms and other climatic tantrums of a country like the United States, where air mailmen are now so numerous as to he no longer a source of wonderment.