MODERN AIRLINERS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 June 1938, Page 9

MODERN AIRLINERS

USE ON BRITISH ROUTES. An order for four Lockheed-14-seat airliners has been placed by British Airways, Limited, with the approval of the Air Ministry, and the first of the new aircraft will be delivered in Jfngland at the beginning of August. The remainder (says “The Times”) will go into service in September and October. These machines are intended primarily for use in the experiments and subsequently in the regular service along the route to West Africa which is to be developed in readiness for a mail service between London and South America. Since that service is not likely to be in regular operation for more than a year, it is to be concluded that the bigger Lockheeds will be used on the company’s Continental services.

Five of the smaller liners of similar design, the Lockheed Electras, have been in use for some time by British Airways, both on the Paris service and on the express service to Scandinavia. The new type is bigger and faster. In its standard form it carries 12 passengers and a crew of two, whereas the Electra holds 10 passengers and two pilot. The device of cutting off the two forward seats, in order to make a wireless cabin is being followed in the 14-seaters, the complement of whidh will be 10 passengers, two pilots, a wireless operator and a steward. The new machines have a top speed of 255 miles an hour, and a cruising speed at a height of 14,000 feet of 230 miles an hour. The power on which they rely is that of two 900 h.p. engines. or about twice that of the Electra. Height may bo maintained on the power of one engine alone up to 12,000 feet. The cost of the four liners will be £70,000, a price which does not include import duty, since the aircraft working chiefly outside Great Britain, are regarded as perpetually in bond. For operation at great height they will be equipped with supplies of oxygen. Their range in still air is given as 2125 miles.