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Show Clipper Ship, Marvel of Skyways -i officers free to keep close watch on the course of the ship. The condition of the engine Is entirely In charge of the ship's engineer. Nearly all of the many instruments, gages, dials and indicators in-dicators are banked In the engine room, which Is In the center of the wing. No. 7 is truly a symbol of the steps ahead which have been made In transcontinental trans-continental air travel. France Is linking link-ing up even Its most distant colonies with the French capital by means of ships of this size, one of which has already been completed, the Lieut.-de-Vaisseau-Paris. This ship Is the largest larg-est seaplane in the world, with a wingspread of nearly 50 meters and engines which develop more than 5,200 horsepower. It weighs 37 tons and has a crew of eight. It has several first-class first-class cabins, each with two beds and a private bath. -i B gp!wywijs;tgga,.i. 11 ollicers free to keep close watch on J j. s k H- ; j ) t,ie course of the ship. The condition f s ,;sV j. J of the engine is entirely In charge of ( n N " f . ' ' the ship's engineer. Nearly all of the " 1 -s tv j&jTmaK 1 many instruments, gages, dials and in- ; N ( - 1 , . 'Xsf i dicators are banked in the engine 1 N xx ' X ' 4 j room, which Is In the center of the , Mi ' Att$ ahead which have been made In trans- I K"j" n-, a continental air travel. France Is link- eI i vt'H v lns up eveu Its most distant cionie3 ; Ukt 1 fV , W H with the French capital by means of 1 j -'"1 K ' O.'V-' " I ships of this size, one of which has ; S " fS? already been completed, the Lieut.-de- ' I t ! 'V i u( ! l,4 Vaisseau-Paris. This ship is the larg- i ' " S' v' " ft: 1 est seaplane in the world, with a : , " s s v y 4 wingspread of nearly 50 meters and Lj V ' " - ' P"" engines which develop more than 5,200 1 1 f " ' J-- : vo" S'"ws horsepower. It weighs 37 tons and has f i H i , Ygef"7P ? a crew of eight- :t hns several first" ; jj "-V I ' H, """" rSr"r class c,bins. eacn witn tw0 beds and llq O Pu'Jr&Z$&l a private bath. j f ' '7 - -f " rr pLlhtM f f? Above, Artist's Conception of 1,500-Passenger Transatlantic Plane Planned in Germany. Right, Pan-American Clipper Ship. Below, Maxim Gorki, Russia's Largest Plane, Which Crashed, Killing 48. By WILLIAM C. UTLEY THE world, with America in the lead, is entering a ' new and glorious era of transportation. It might be called the Era of Realization of the Fantastic. Not so many years ago in fact within with-in the memory of children still in school covers of magazines of the so-called so-called "science" and "invention" type were filled with artists' startling conception con-ception of great flying palaces, then weird In appearance, which were to tie together the far ends of the earth in the future. Blase passengers were shown reading newspapers, playing chess or even shuffle-board while their great winged carriers cleft the clouds far above the vast expanses of ocean. tween continents. With its inception into service the period of pure experiment experi-ment will be over. None of the comforts of rail travel need be sacrificed aboard the clipper. Soundproofing of all passenger compartments com-partments reduces motor noise so that it is no greater than the unannoying noise of a pullman car. The passenger passen-ger deck, 43 feet long, has a ceiling six and one-half feet high, so that even tall men need not stoop In walking. walk-ing. Thirty passengers and a crew of five can be carried. The spacious lounge and dining room seats 16 at a time. For sleeping, the passenger seats can be converted into 12 single and six double berths ; in case of a "full Service has already started between the French capital and points In French Colonial Africa. The Netherlands Nether-lands have ordered new Douglas planes for transcontinental lines. Service has been going along on schedule for some time between the United States and various South American points served by Pan-American Airways. The Graf Zeppelin is so regular in its schedule between Germany and Brazil that no one mentions its arrivals and departures depar-tures any more. Use Isolated Islands. Since early this year, American ships have been busy carrying supplies sup-plies of all kinds food, clothing, cows, chickens, tools and building materials to once isolated islands in the Pa- Novels of highly Imaginative fiction, typified by the "Mars" stories of Edgar Ed-gar Rice Burroughs, bristled our spines with high jinks on other planets where the members of scientifically superior su-perior civilizations flew about the faces of their respective planets in spectacular hops of thousands of miles at a time. Such wild literary entertainment we were wont, for fear of appearing too silly to our neighbors, to leave In upstairs up-stairs bedrooms, reserving the space on the library table for Dickens. Thackeray, Edgar A. Guest and the family Bible. And while deep In our hearts we thought it was "swell" reading, read-ing, we knew that it was really "impossible "im-possible stuff!" Yet, before the year is out, regular scheduled passenger service will be in effect between the United States and China. Not flying palaces, perhaps, but at least flying hotels will soon link the newest and most progressive of the great powers with the oldest and most mysterious of nations on another side of the world. Surprising enough, the giant ships of the air look very much like the artists' conceptions which graced the sensational press of a few years back. Most surprising of all, we accept the real thing with far less amazement than we did its imaginative forerunner. Now that the New Era is actually upon us, we accept with little wonder the fact that German engineers are planning the construction of a transatlantic trans-atlantic air liner that will carry 1,500 persons. This flying boat will be literally lit-erally a hotel on wings. It will sacrifice sacri-fice none of the comforts of the great oce.m liners, with their sport decks, entertainment facilities, etc. Ship Cars by Air. There will be elevators from deck to deck. There will bo room for travelers trav-elers to take their own automobiles across the sea with them. Garages will be provided for these; special hoisting hoist-ing machinery will lift the cars up Into the plane. The ocean steamship has its supply of life boats to turn loose from thn mother ship In case of emergency at sea, and the proposed flying boat will not be outdone in this respect, either, for room will be provided to house smaller auxiliary planes. These will take off from the surface of the body of the great plane, being speeded on their way over the sea by a powerful catapult which will assure their getting get-ting Into the air. This ship may sound a little fantastic fan-tastic to us, but by this time we are used to having fantastic new contraptions contrap-tions accepted as practical facts almost al-most overnight. The German designers design-ers promise us that such a flying ship as this will be ready for travel over the ocean In the very near future. Hardly less spectacular is the American Amer-ican marvel of the skyways, Flying Clipper No. 7, which is now completed as the first ship ever designed specifically spe-cifically for transoceanic travel. It will begin service, probably on the route across the Tacific, some time this summer. It is now finishing tests which so far have proved It to be equal to the bullying of the elements and the once forbidding distance be- nouse mere are tour aouDie Dertns available in the lounge. So far it has not been decided how to apportion the available space to passengers and cargo. This may depend de-pend largely upon the popularity of inter-continental air travel. For example, ex-ample, it will be possible with one scheme of distribution to carry 12 passengers, the crew, and a cargo of 2,200 pounds on non-stop flights of 3,000 miles. The clipper has four engines, whose 3,200 developed horsepower can climb 1,000 feet a minute with a load of 51,-000 51,-000 pounds. The plane's cruising speed at 12,000 feet Is 163 miles an hour, but it can do ISO and more if necessary. neces-sary. It can soar more than four miles high. Safety Clipper Watchword. Safety has been the watchword in the design of the clipper. If one of the engines should fail, the other three could finish the flight, carrying the 51,000-pound burden. Even If two of them should go dead at the same time, the remaining two would maintain main-tain the altitude long enough to allow the captain and his men an opportunity oppor-tunity to make ready for any emergencies. emer-gencies. The sea holds no terrors for this remarkable re-markable ship. It could make a forced landing in a stormy sea with more ease than the gray gull it resembles. resem-bles. It can land or take off in a sea with waves running five feet high. Former clipper ships have been assisted as-sisted in the water by pontoons suspended sus-pended from the wings. No. 7 has a supporting device, new to American design, de-sign, which Is called a "sponsoon" and might be likened to an additional wing. This sticks out a short distance from each side of the body at water level. It serves to house the fuel tanks, also.' The No. 7 is larger in every respect than the clipper ship which recently flew from California to Hawaii and back again. The latter's four engines are each of 700 horsepower, totaling 400 less than the No. 7. It has a 114-foot 114-foot wing spread, weighs 19,000 pounds empty, 40,000 pounds loaded, and its maximum cruising range Is 3,000 miles. The new clipper's wings are 130 feet from tip to tip. It weighs 23,100 pounds empty and can add a useful load of 27,900 pounds. Its maximum range is 4,000 miles. If mileage between be-tween stops were reduced, the ship could carry 24 passengers and a pay-load pay-load amounting to several tons to Europe over the route made famous by Col. Charles A. Lindbergh. With normal stopping periods included, in-cluded, a ship of this type could fly from New York to London In about 33 hours, averaging 1G0 miles an hour. That Is less than the time required to go from New York to Chicago and back by rail. The traveler could leave New York late Saturday night and be in London In time to start the business week first thing Monday morning. Instead of a pilot and co-pilot, like our land transport planes have, the clipper ship has a captain and a navigator, navi-gator, for it is an ocean-going vessel. Automatic Flying. Most of the flying is done by an automatic pilot that leaves these two j cific ocean, so that they can be coil-verted coil-verted into habitable landing stations In the most important of all the new sea routes, the one from the United States to China. The longest hop on this journey will be the one from California to Hawaii, a distance of 2,400 miles, to be covered cov-ered in a little more than 17 hours, as the Pan-American clipper commanded com-manded by Captain Musick covered it a few weeks ago. From Hawaii, the planes will hop to Guam, Wake, Midway, Mid-way, the Philippine islands and Canton, Can-ton, China. Strangely, the Chinese government has not yet agreed to let the American Ameri-can planes have a terminal In Canton, Can-ton, or anywhere else in China. This difficulty, which probably arose from the Chinese fear that the Japanese government will expect the same privilege, priv-ilege, Is expected to be ironed out before be-fore the landing stations are all completed com-pleted and the route Is ready for service. There is good reason for Japan, as well as several other nations Important In the world of commerce, to be alarmed. For the completion of the air route to China will probably mean the beginning of a new dominance of the China trade by the United States. It will bring the Chinese market closer to this country than even the European market. England, France and Holland air services have attempted to lay the plans for air services to China, but have been stopped at the Chinese border. bor-der. Germany alone of the European nations has been able to get in with air lines. We hold this advantage: rapid and uninterrupted flight Is possible pos-sible across the Pacific, while land flights from European nations to China face the obstacle of frequent stops for inspection when crossing international boundary lines. Russian Marvel Crashes. With all the clipper ships considered, perhaps the most unusual of all the giants of the air was the ill-fated Russian Rus-sian ship, the Maxim Gorki. It weighed 42 tons, carried 63 persons, had eight engines of a total of 7,000 horsepower, flew 150 miles an hour and cost 54,-350,000.' 54,-350,000.' In it were a complete photographic photo-graphic studio, a photo-engraving plant, an electrically driven rotary printing press capable of turning out 8,000 newspapers an hour, a radio broadcasting broad-casting studio, talking movie equipment, equip-ment, a restaurant-lounge, 16 telephones, tele-phones, an observation saloon, business offices, sleeping quarters and a sound amplifier system. It was used, of course, for Soviet propaganda purposes. pur-poses. The crashing of the Gorkf, with the loss of everyone aboard, during maneuvers ma-neuvers over Moscow, was something of a shock to the builders of all large airplanes. It must be pointed out however, that the accident was no fault of the ship. A pilot of a smaller j plane, stunting against orders, ran into it, head-on. The insubordinate flier was himself killed in the crash. Not even the sensational magazines predicted such unbelievable wonders as a flying newspaper plant, radio studio and moving picture theater. fiS Western Newspaper Union. |