MID-OCEAN AERODROMES

Waikato Times, Volume 122, Issue 20509, 27 May 1938, Page 3

MID-OCEAN AERODROMES

ANGLO-AMERICAN PLANS £1,000,000 PROPOSITION (Times Air Mail Service) LONDON, April 14. British and American air experts are to-day working out plans to establish a chain of giant floating seadromes across the North Atlantic, says the Daily Sketch. By this means they hope to solve the problem of flying a regular transatlantic air-service with a really economic payload. Tlie seadrome scheme is being examined in conjunction with the results of the recent "one-hop” flights ' across the Atlantic by the Imperial Airways flying boats, and the experi- ‘ mental flights of the Mayo composite aircraft. Refuelling En Route Floating seadromes would enable ’ freight and passenger-carrying mach- | ines to take off with a relatively small ; load of fuel and to refuel en route. ; Yesterday an aeronautical expert ‘ said that the new floating islands will 5 l se: —Nearly half a mile long, and from I 150 to 200 yards wide; flUed with ' their own power to enable Them to be swung into the wind to give the 7 longest possible run for a take-off; 1 built complete with hangars, work- ' shops and living quarters; and equip- ? ped with their own radio and “blind” landing apparatus. “The whole structure would weigh 5 as much as a giant liner.” explained the expert, “and the cost would be in ' the region of £1,000,000. “With such landing places available, 40-seater air liners could fly the At- ? lantic in two, three or four hops for refuelling. “The Americans have already spent £150,000 on experiments.”