Show MAP TRANS ATLANTIC ALANTIC AIR ROUTE pan american glenn L Mart martinr and nd british imperial airways are building planes to begin bagi n commercial service r it IV MILE a 40 ie 14 co 0 ov lead jf TRANCE C 0 J 0 11 0 tr r c 0 ova S 04 NEWYORK all F LAS ec routes are shown aib in tle alap above transatlantic atlantic akil ikil distance in the two apropo sed trans by WILLIAM C UTLEY flying on regular schedule across the atlan C tic ocean to europe i is s expected to become a fact in the late summer or early fall five years of research experiment and study have convinced the three prospective ope operators of the two proposed routes that the time is at hand repeated success in flying the wide pacific and the blue caribbean with the giant clipper ships has equipped the oper operators acors with the experience needed for flying the most important oceanic course of them all pan american airways and imperial airways of great britain have long been making preparations for joint operation which would involve four round trip crossings per week recently a third party glenn L martin announced plans of competing in the transatlantic trans atlantic service martin was the builder of most of the great clippers now flying the pacific and of many of the ardys M most 0 s t successful bombardment planes over a span of IS 18 years for his service martin has designed the largest transport flying boat ever built for construction of ships of this type his baltimore plant which was taxed to the limit in the building of the pacific clippers is being enlarged the type of ship he is building for transatlantic service will carry 40 passengers pounds of mail and fuel enough for miles of nonstop flying at a cruising speed of miles an hour british have two ships at such a rate of speed it would be possible to make the crossing from west to east to continental europe in 18 hours and to make the return t trip r i p against prevailing winds in 21 hours this is about equal to the time required by limited railroad trains between chicago and new york it is faster by four full days than the atlantic crossings of the queen mary and the normandie the two fastest liners I 1 float afloat imperial airways already has two giant flying ships the cavalier and the caledonia engaged in experimental flights in preparation for the transatlantic trans atlantic service two other ships of this the C type have been in experimental service over t the h e mediterranean for several months one of them not 1 long ong ago established a record of 13 hours and 35 minutes for the 2000 miles from southampton to alexandria twenty four more type C ships have been ordered the total cost of the fleet will approximate 10 they are a type of transport new to the british they are comparable in many ways to the clippers of pan american although they are somewhat smaller they carry a gross weight of pounds as against for the they are 88 feet long 24 feet high and have a wing span of feet their four pegasus horsepower engines are capable of a top speed of miles an hour and a cruising speed of to miles an hour the plan is to use these planes for passengers only on flights between new york and hamilton bermuda on such flights they will carry 18 in addition to the crew they will be used for air in mail ail only on the hop across the atlantic to europe carrying only first and second pilots ships clerk radio operator and steward unbroken safety record pan american claims to be ready to begin transatlantic trans atlantic flying at a moments notice it has available many crews enriched by the experience of five years of flying over the caribbean sea the route from miami to panama was for years the longest overwater over water hop on any of the worlds commercial airlines since the f first flight was made over this route on december 2 1930 the line has made two regularly scheduled round trip flights a week in a total of 2400 crossings there has never been an incident of any kind and only a few hops were canceled because of hurricanes pan american has also flown dozens of successful flights from san francisco to manila with the early difficulties ironed out it is now possible to extend the flights all the way to china A new addition to the martin clippers which pan american has in service on its pacific route is a larger than any of the ten clippers now being flown to the west indies and panama it is larger and improved over the earlier which pioneered the pac pacific route its gross weight being pounds as compared with pounds for the earlier type the wing span is feet against the old feet top speed of the new is miles an ho hour ur and cruising speed this compares with and for the two transatlantic trans atlantic routes the new clipper is standing ready for the china run which completes an all american air mail route circling more than half the world airline distance from new york to hong kong is about miles while the distance around the globe in in that latitude is some miles the planes beat the fastest surface transportation between hong kong and new york by 25 days making the trip in days on the transatlantic trans atlantic flight two routes will be used the southern route taking preference over the northern in bad weather they were described by louis ludlow con flight are as follows new york to bermuda miles bermuda to azores 2067 miles azores to lisbon 1050 miles lisbon to giron girande gironde Gi ronde de miles gironde girande to london miles total miles the northern route it will be seen is the shorter of the two ro routes utes by more than 1500 miles but the safety factors are on the side of the southern route and will be until more experience has been acquired in combating storms and ice in the high northern latitudes until such time therefore it Is is expected that most of the floi flying ng will be by the southern route which is safe at all seasons of the year the scheduled time for making the flight by the northern route win will be between 24 and 30 hours and by the soui southern hern route between 36 and 40 hours when we recall that the fastest steamships the queen mary a and n d the normandie consume 4 days and 20 hours making the transatlantic trans atlantic trip from port to port we have an idea of the extent to which the new air service will quicken mail passenger and express transportation war department approves two departments of the government the post office department and the state department are deeply interested in the establishment of this transatlantic trans atlantic air service the indiana legislator told members of the house it also is cordially approved by the war department part ment which sees nothing objectionable tio to it from a national defense standpoint As an argument against delay it is contended that it would be in the interest of america to close the matter at once while it has british acquiescence it is pointed out that the united states has no way to send air mail to europe now or at any time in the future unless britain allows it to get there as the termini and intermediate landing points are controlled by the british this is true as to nova scotia newfoundland and ireland on the northern route and bermuda and the azores on the southern route the azores are portuguese territory but conceded to be under the british sphere of influence the post office department visualizes immediate success for the service and a complete fulfillment of expectations in a big way ludlow continued whether or not its optimism is well founded remains to be seen but certainly all of the factors of success seem to be in the equation the air mail postage rate proposed for trans at A e i 4 W one of the giant china clippers of pan american ready to take off ships of this type will probably be used on the transatlantic trans atlantic route gressman from indiana who conducted hearings concerning the establishment of trans atlantic air mail rates the distance by the northern route from new york to london via shediac nova scotia and ireland he explained is miles the step off from newfoundland to ireland is a sheer distance of more than 2000 miles over water without any landing places by the southern route the distance from new york to london is about miles but the hazard of flight is relieved by numerous landing places the various legs of this lantic alantic mail is 25 cents per letter of one half ounce and 25 cents additional for each half ounce or fraction thereof this compares with the existing foreign mail rate of 5 cents an ounce and 3 cents for each additional half ounce the service contemplates the use of air mail all the way from point of origin to point of dest destination nation based on close calculation of the prospective volume of mail the department part ment predicts that at the 25 cent rate the revenues would pay the contractual obligations at 2 per mile and the service would be self sustaining from the start which would differentiate it very markedly from the air service to china which although it has been in operation since november 22 1935 still registers a big annual deficit the picture of the transatlantic trans atlantic air mail that is in the minds of the post office department officials vis visualizes london as the funnel through which air mail from all over europe will be gathered and sent to america on the other hand new york is visualized as the funnel through which mail coming from the orient all countries in the western hemisphere north of brazil and all of the united states will pass on the way to london and points in europe western newspaper union |