DEVELOPMENT OF AVIATION

Shannon News, 9 July 1926, Page 2

DEVELOPMENT OF AVIATION

* TO THE ANTIPODES IN A WLca. LONDON, May' 8. Referring to the marvellous and steady development of aviation which is taking place, the Empire Review finds'>that each year marks unheralded advances in the speed of transport through space, and the security. this mode of travel. But so far this progress has been mor e marked for aeroplanes than airships, and, since the extinction of the latter after the war, they have not figured in calculations. But now there ar e actually airships building, and Air Vice-marshal Sir William Brancker has told of a startling early advance in aviation in ships. Two vessels now under construction should be ready and flying next year, and these leviathans may then b e leaving Bedfordshire for a trip to Sydney, and on even to Auckland. The journey to Australia will be accomplished in a dozen days instead of 30, and ultimately New Zealand may be reached in a little over a week. As for safety, in 1925 the Imperial Airways covered nearly 900.00® miles without any accident. In seven years they have covered over 3,000.000 miles with only four deaths. Here is a link of Empire undreamed of even in Edmund Burke’s philosophy. During the present national strike the Continental air services are being duplicated and triplicated to carry passengers and mails. The Prince of Wales returned home on Monday nigh* by air from Paris, hurrying back from his recuperative holiday at Biarritz when it became known that the usual means of transport might be cancelled altogether. A special flight was made to Dublin and back this week in connection with a private order.