TRAVEL BY AIR.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 June 1922, Page 5

TRAVEL BY AIR.

LONDON TO AUSTRALIA, TWELVE DAYS’ JOURNEY. CHEAPER THAN BY BOAT. By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. Melbourne, June 19.. Sir Keith Smith, in an interview, declared that a service of first-class airships could easily put Melbourne within 12 days’ easy travelling of London, at a cost considerably less than the first-class mail boat rates. Thirty passengers could easily be carried in comfort, with proper cabins and lounges, and smoking-room accommodation, and he was convinced a properly organised commercial aerial service subsidised for the first two or three years could, after a short time, be run at a profit, though the public was still rather too afraid of aeroplanes to make much commercial use of them for some time. But their time would come. There certainly had been a large number of accidents lately, but it must be remembered much more publicity had been given them than to other accidents. The disaster to R3B resulted from attempting to adopt machines built for scouting purposes to commercial purposes, for which they were not fitted. Such accidents would possibly never happen to airships designed solely for commercial purposes, and such vessels were as safe to manoeuvre hs any ordinary liner. Mooring masts have completely solved the problem of their unwieldiness.