ATLANTIC FLIGHT A SHREWD GERMAN MOVE

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 437, 20 August 1928, Page 14

ATLANTIC FLIGHT A SHREWD GERMAN MOVE

SHIPPING TO IRELAND MAJOR FITZMAURICE’S HINTS From casual remarks which Major Fitzmaurice has made since his return to Dublin from Doom, Holland, where he and his German flight comrades dined with the former Kaiser, it is quite obvious that there was much more method than madness in Baron von Huenefeld’s decision to start the Bremen’s transatlantic flight from Ireland. At first it seemed that his decision to make Baldonnell Airdrome his jumping-off ground was due mainly to the fuel capacity of the Junkers plane and that the selection of Fitzmaurice as second pilot was a casual afterthought. But the opinion has hardened into belief tbat the baron had prepared his plans with a great deal of foresight and deliberation and with the idea of extending the scope of German civil aviation. Two German Atlantic shipping lines, whose support the baron has enlisted, have during the last few months been making experiments calling at Galway, on the west coast of Ireland, to land passengers and cargo. They have used their smaller boats and comparatively few people landed except those who were returning to Ireland, or tourists who had included the Free State in their itineraries. The innovation, however, has obtained for them the goodwill of the people of Western Ireland, who have long been urging the claims of the natural harbours on their coast as fitting ports for Atlantic shipping. Of recent years there has been a tendency to neglect Ireland, on the part of Atlantic shipping lines which have put all their big boats in the Southampton-New York service and have touched at Queenstown only with their smaller and slower boats. Would Divert Larger Boats It seems more than likely that the main idea behind Baron von Huenefeld’s Atlantic flight is to divert the big German liners to Galway and there tranship the passengers and mails by airplane or seaplane to Europe. Thus they would reduce the time between New York and Berlin by 24 to 36 hours, compared with the present Southampton route. So far the baron has not shown his hand, but Fitzmaurice, when discussing Ireland’s future as a seaport between Europe and America, stated that he thought the Free State should prepare to become the connecting link in the great chain of air lines which must inevitably connect Europe with America. It is his opinion that the most suitable spot for an airdrome would he at Letterfrack, at Slynehead, on the Connemara coast, where a suitable runway for launching flying boats is now being considered. The major declared that the first thing to be done was to begin connecting Ireland with the rest of Europe by an air line which could later be developed to connect with transatlantic services. It is quite obvious from Major Fitzmaurice’s ffemarks that he has been discudbing ftiis matter at length with Baron von Huenefeld,' who paid several visits to the west coast of Ireland early this year. Constructing an airdrome at the point mentioned would enable liners to drop passengers in Galway Bay and continue the journey to Europe with only slight delay. Such a scheme could be started almost immediately and if the German shinning lines could obtain preferential % itment it would give them a very big advantage in the fight to control transatlantic traffic.