ROUND THE WORLD BY AIR.

Taranaki Daily News, 15 August 1917, Page 6

ROUND THE WORLD BY AIR.

THE POSSIBILITIES.

EXPERT'S CALCULATIONS. World-wide aeroplane services for passem/ rs and mails as a commercial possibility, were the subject of an important lecture by Mr Holt Themas, of tin- Aircraft Manufacturing Company before the Aeronautical Society of Great Britain.

Mr Holt Thomas, put forward carefully calculated tables of expenses which gave the following results:—A machine carrying P2 passengers could take them from London to Paris at a cost of £;"> each, and cam a profit of £ls on the journey. A similar machine could carry SO.flOOlb of mails and good* at an average charge of a halfpenny an ounce. The journey from London to Constantinople would cost £25 each for passengers, or 2 | /.d an ounce for goods. "By means of aeroplanes, Paris is brought within three hours of London, instead of seven." said Mr Thomas. "Rome means 12'/ a hours instead of 42 hours, and fetrograd and Constantinople are both brought within a day's journey. You will see, then, what an enormous thing commercial aeronautics represents, anil what a revolution in speedy transit. Ceylon becomes two and three-quarter days from London, Tokio four and a-half days, Sydney live days, Capetown three and a-lialf days, Vancouver three days, and so on.

FRANCE TO TFMRTJCTOO. ''Timbuctoo sounds the most improbable place that anybody would wish to arrive at, but, strange to say, it is one of the places where an aerial service is already projected by the French, which really ail'ords a very good instance of the use of the aeroplane. .At tke present moment it takes three 1.-> four months from Bordeaux to Timbuctoo, and owing to this the many officers employed spend half their time going and coming. The cost of 1 his journey at present is .£12(1. and it is estimated by a friend of mine in the, French Oovernment. who has given me this plan. Unit it could be done by aeroplane for ill0(1 a journey, and, taking it in easy stau'os, it would only be a'matter of davs instead of months.

"Nothing can compete with the aerorlatu's fi.r those on sn/cial services in need of the areatest speed possible. A special aeroplane—i.e., special used in the sense of a special train, which is perfectly feasible to-day—will enable the business man to leave Loudon in tie' morning, do his business in Paris, and be home again to dinner. It will take him to Ragdad in a day and a dial f. or New York in two davs. Many business men would smile at the iil-a of using this nude of conveyance io-day, but the oniy thing !-• to remind him that they al-o smiled in Ike early days of motor-cars, and vet half the business to-day would take double Ihe time to do if the motor-car were not iii existence.

SEAPLANES FOR RIVER!?. "A parson in a far-oi'f colony has already proposed to n-e a sinplano to lly round ihe coast, acres- b:;.v>, etc.. and so visit his par'n-li in hours instead of months of tedious travel. "Rivers again suggest a very probable and certainly u-cfi;| employment of aeronautic", using tliem as a line of flight. Hue." db.trii.ts in many localiiie* such as Africa, are controlled by idliciaN who u-uMlv e.nploy Ihe riwr a- a means of traii~it, ii-ing motor-launch;:.-, n.id then inland from the hcuv-t point. Think of replacing this by the use of seaplane- (hung l(in miles an hour. This equally applies to mails. (south America. Canada, Asia, all come into this .-cheme. and no landing ground is. required. Nature has supplied it in ,he form of a smooth- ■urfaeed river. Again, there ready-made roads etoiid be followed at night with a searchlight on

the machine with the greatest ease and no danger.

COMFORTS OF A CAR. "One point I should like to disulrti-e. everyone on at once is the discomfort of an aeroplane. At the present time it is. not, of course, suited for carrying a large number of passenger:;; hut I have gone carefully info this problem with my drawing office, and, allowing for His. reduction in speed the. alterations vvi'l necessarily make, v.e find that it is perfectly easy to design a comfortable whin i« which p.i-sengers would be quite us much at th.dr ease as by any other method of transit. In the bigPorte boat, built by my company, we have already a machine which has a commodious cabin."