Show united states state S ahead of europe in flying boats foreign manufacturers using subsidies to catch up washington backed by large government subsidies aircraft factories in gre great at britain france germany and italy are busily at work on huge flying boats aimed at catching up in the race for over ocean trade routes of the air which the american system ran pan amerlean american airways now dominates there Is rivalry as between the european countries the themselves ms elves but all are bent upon a race with american aviation tn in the field of overseas hying flying in which the big clipper ships constructed in this country are far in the van few details of specifications on foreign boats have been allowed to leak through the cordon of military secrecy those craft that have reached the flying stage however have fallen far below the performance of the american ships great britain for example started the testing of of the first of her four hying flying boats of new construction st on it a light flight by easy stages from plymouth to singapore preliminary Il test flights of the short brothers craft showed that in eM efficiency clency it did not compare with the and martin clippers built here new boats for england construction has therefore been begun by the air ml ministry bistry for imperial airways of two six 35 ton flying boats tor for the domination of the tr transatlantic route to kni america erica one of these ships Is being built by short brothers and the other by blackburn ltd the F reach french have had preliminary hardld hardluck ck with the me first of their ocean going giants to be flown the 37 ton lieutenant tenant de Vals seau paris powered with six OSO horsepower engines this boat was constructed inland and then hauler to the sea in order to better preserve the secrets of its construction details and spring a surprise when it went into service for air france the pan american clipper has twice crossed the Pati pacific 2410 miles between california and hawaii cawall at an average speed of miles an hour a and nd had sufficient gasoline in the tanks at either end for an additional mliss while the first of the three big martin mareing boats b eing being built at baltimore for the Anie american rican airline weighs 26 20 tons ton as is against the 37 of the Vals seau paris it can carry as greata great a passenger mall and express load over ranges of 2000 miles and transport them nearly 50 miles an hour faster faste r and abd at one third of the estimated cost per mile the martin which will have speed trials in the next week or so has already made miles an hour in testa over ches chesapeake bay italy holds speed records details of germanys germanas Germ anys doreler wol wal boats for the south atlantic service except those comparatively small types which have been using the steamer West falen cn as a mid ocean base ore are unavailable here little more about italis big boats Is available it Is known however that within the ans past year premier mussolini welded into one oper operating ahng unit government owned all operating airlines under the italian an flog for the acknowledged purpose of a unified drive for a dominant place in the miles of organized airways which now link the lie outposts of the world under the impetus of this move italy has already achieved worlds records for aircraft speed and distance the lessons learned from the smaller aircraft making these records are said raid to be incorporated in long range flying boats now under construction two of them are four of horsepower each |