SPEEDING UP MAILS

Shannon News, 12 October 1928, Page 4

SPEEDING UP MAILS

USE OF AEROPLANES.

AN EXPERIMENTAL SERVICE

LONDON.

Another important development in the rapid transport of mails has been .made by the use of aeroplanes in the last stages of the journey. The experiment represents the development of an idea of Mr. J. Dal Piaz, the late chairman of the Compagnie Generate Transatlantique, whose liner, He de France, is the largest of post-war design and build in the world. When the. He do France was 150 miles from New York on its last journey an aeroplane wa.s despatched from its dcek, 1C hours thus being saved. The report of the pilot was that both the taking-off and the flight had been simple. An interesting circumstance connected with the French experiment is that the mails thus forwarded by aeroplane, from her deck included a bag put on board at Plymouth by the British Post Office authorities. There were also official French Government mails and the mails of the liuer's passengers. Requests for the inclusion of mails and parcels in the service have been exceedingly large, but it has been pointed out that there is no provision at present for giving the public in this country any such facilities Service to South America. Another rapid service it to South America, and, in particular, the cities of Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires. The new facilities which under its latest enterprise the post /office is to afford, are bound to prove very acceptable to English trading with South America, as'the new mail, which takes business and. private letters, is organised to carry to Rio in eight days and to % Montevideo and Buenos Aires in nine.

The special air fee, in addition to the ordinary postage, is 4s. 6d per half ounce to Rio and 5s Cd to Uruguay, Argentina. Paraguay, Bolivia and Chile. The usual special provisions apply, that the prescribed air mail labels must be affixed or the packets marked "By Air Mail." The ordinary methods of posting may be adopted, and registration is possible, but there is no present provision for insurance. The initiation of the service,/ which covers air and sea travel, on the successful experiment from the Ho de France of the carriage of letters by aeroplane over Atlantic waters to New York.

The new service has a direct connection with the facilities that have been provided for some time by the French authorities for an air mail to

South America, and advantage is being taken by the British Post Office of the circumstance that it has now been generally opened after having been carried on experimentally from France for about five months. The new air mail route is as follows: —By aeroplane to Toulouse, then to Dakar, French West Africa, and on to Cape Verde Islands; by steamship to the Isle of Fernando Noronha, off South America; by aeroplane to Natal, Brazil, and thence to Buenos Aires, with incidental connections w r ith various (forts of the country. Compressed Air Catapult.

The a?icplane used by the lie de France is a Liorc et Olivier Amphibian —420 h.p. Gnome-Rhone Jupiter, engine --which can. alight on land or water. It canies, besides about 6001 b. of .mails, two pilots and a' mechanic. There'is no deck space on the liner which will allow a wheeled or amphibian machine to take off in the ordinary way, but the flying-boat is shot from a compressed air calapult similar to those used in warships. A trolley on wnich the machine is placed is diiven forward, by a piston at a speed "high enough to get the machine into flight with its engine running;; in order, to help the take-off this catapult is trained into the wind with the sh:o running at full speed. On her -voyage back to Fiance the ship will, ic'case her flying-boat in the approaches to the Channel, and it will land at Le Bourget •lerqdromc. The Paris mails will be delivered the same evening instead of the next day. The aeroplane service from the He de France is experimental, and will be extended to other ships if the public demand is found sufficient. The service has been established at the expense, and by the initiative of the Compaigne Generalc Transatlar.tique, though the mails are delivered in. the ordinary way after their arrival at the aerodrome. It is not yet possible to estimate the demand for the service in France, "as the notice given to the public was too short.