Show 12 HOURS TO CROSS THE ATLANTIC great flying boats blaze trails for regular Cominer commercial cial hops follow weather lier man triumphs perhaps Perli aps soon khoon to AUTOMATIC CROSS WEIGHT OF propellers PROPEL LORS 2234 TONS LENGTH US c R YA OF FUSELAGE 6 IN I 1 8 2 AG LLOS FOUR WING LENGTH I 1 I 1 B N EACH A TOP GIVE TWO PILOTS AT OF SPEED CONTROLS FIXED ANTENNA ATALL TIMES FUEL f SUN GLARE DOUBLE RUDDER GALLONS FINDER MOORING FLAP ACTS AS AIR BRAKE 47 u MASTER al r TAKING LUM un REAR it WINCH RA I 1 01 INE SPARE EQUIPMENT OPERATION iff ry room IV co FIRE extinguishers NAVI OIL FOR ENGINES SLEEPING OFF E FUEL LIFE QUARTERS ANTENNA TRANSI RAFT WITS CYLINDERS PONTOON ro lu C 0 E 0 T T 1 E T compartment i CARRY 1 1 1560 SECURE PLANES 1 N F 1 A T E T ANY GALLONS I OF LATERAL STABILITY ow 1 FIT EXTRA FUEL SIGNALS 1 F OFF WAT TWO CLOSED BOMBS no compartment compartments ya CRUISING SING RANGE AT 1635 MILES PER MOUa 3 MILES OTHER EQUIPMENT CAN AN ALTITUDE OP OF FEET IS EASILY REACHED VIP kz Z the drawing is a self explanatory cross section of the pan american clipper III americas entry in the race to establish a transatlantic trans atlantic airline the photograph shows the caledonia one of great britaina Brit ains oceanic flying boats by WILLIAM C UTLEY 0 commonplace have become the gassings pas sings of the great S SO flying boats blazing the i trail for a transatlantic trans atlantic air mail and passenger service that their arrivals and departures now rate only a short paragraph buried on an inside page but the very fact that these operations have ceased to be news is in itself news for it indicates that we may be not unduly optimistic in anticipating regularly arly scheduled service over toughest sea route before the end of next year tiie the consistent absence of incident in these experimental crossings is not a phenomenal string of good luck nor to a long series of coincidences it is a direct tribute to the meteorologist the weather man for it is he who maps out the course the craft shall follow commercial flights over land are made along regularly charted airways these are marked by radio beams and be beacon acon markers whose signals provide a path or a number of paths from which there is no deviation except under extraordinary conditions radio provides a track trac through the sky the fact that the krack is invisible does not alter theo the fact that it is there bu but for spanning the atlantic ocean there is no definite radio mj k ked a adriane ir lane there is a great chae course which is the short est distance between landing points bui but weather conditions prohibit its being followed exactly in most cases the great circle course over I 1 tile the atlantic alantic lantic includes a non nonstop stop flight of some 2000 miles As far as distance is concerned this is not as long a hop as the pacific flight from san francisco to hawaii which is 2400 miles leave nothing to chance the clipper ships on the pacific route fly by weather maps too and alt although lough the weather there is far less turbulent than over the north atlantic the clippers in two years of 0 flying have followed the pacific great circle course only three times they have flown the course which follows fol lovs the best flying weather as forecast by the weather bureau crews are willing eien een anxious to fly a much longer distance than ILI the grat circle course if the longer flight will insure favorable winds pleasanter plea santer weather and t speedier flying the ships most important in the present pioneering are the pan Avie american rican clipper III and the british caledonia athe th latter is now supplemented by Y a sister sifter ship the ca cambria abria both ha hav defour four engines apiece api epe they have been carrying large crews each member bembe a specialist in some phase of fly flying 9 such as a i n navigation vi gation or communications col the they Y transported more than sufficient fuel supplies to take care of errors in navigation or unexpected and sudden weather conditions thith were not likely to be accounted for by their aerial reath er map rf it is possible tofely the atlantic without leaving anything to chance that is what they have done preparing ing for the first trip across the pan american meteorologists reviewed 50 years of weather records over the atlantic from these they drew r average for seasons for months and even for days meager firsthand first hand reports were forthcoming from weather stations at port washington N Y shediac new brunswick botwood Bot wood newfoundland found land reykjavik iceland foynes ireland and southampton england these formed the basis for an estimation of upper air conditions how Crews Get Bearl bearings gs for transatlantic trans atlantic flight communications pan american has two stations one at port washington and one at shediac from which long distance bearings can be made the british air ministry has stations at botwood and southampton and the irish free state has one at foynes on each of the great flying boats there is a smaller station these enable the brewi crews to take bearings on themselves from shore stations or from ships they meet en route when a plane calls for bearings the task requires plenty of dexterity and operation cooperation co from the shore stations and the crew to get them back in time to do any good these systems usually work in the following manner the th radio on the flying boat sends out a constant stream of signals these a are re picked up by the shore station t the he direction from which they are coming is determined from the movement of the receiving stations antenna the shore hore station then sends out a bearing in 9 in the sam same e way the ship gets bearings from one or more stations the spot upon which the ship is flying is the spot at which all the bearings cross on july 6 1937 two flights were completed the caledonia left foynes and landed at botwood 15 hours and 3 minutes later the clipper III made the crossing from west to east in 12 hours and 40 minutes an uneventful journey almost every prediction the mete made came true where their maps had said there would be e wind and rain the pilots found wind and rain patches of fog were in iii the sky where they were on the map it was said by the experts that this was one of the most successful weather charts ever prepared for a great flying venture radio communications worked out beautifully too interesting were the different altitudes at which the two ships flew capt H E gray commander of the clipper described his trip asa as an uneventful one and indeed a small one compared with some of those to which he was accustomed above the pacific he reported flying almost the entire distance at feel feet with the clouds below them and the sun shining brightly nearly all the way after daybreak he had the advantage of a 25 mile tailwind the caledonia fought an 18 mile headwind the entire distance making the whole flight through thick clouds and occasional rain at 1000 feet the two ships passed each other when they were 67 miles apart all the way over the ocean they were in in constant communication with each other this was of great benefit for the skipper of the caledonia was able to tell skipper gray what kind of weather awaited him on the last half of his journey and vice versa there is actually no direct communication muni cation from ship to ship however any more than the crew of one s ship h I 1 p has ever actually seen the other crossing the atlantic the british and american flying radio stations operate on different frequencies quen cies so that all inter ship communication muni cation must be accomplished with relays through the shore stations it is apparent from the flights completed this summer that the route from newfoundland to ireland will be ideal for transatlantic trans atlantic flying during the warmer months but the north atlantic winter is a humdinger and only time will tell what freezing temperatures and ice will do to the big ships it will probably be necessary to install de icing equipment on all the planes in regular service there are alternate routes which may be more feasible in the winter and these will be tested in th the months to come the most likely is that from new york to bermuda the azores and thence to southampton new york to london by way of shediac and botwood is miles i by way of the azores and bermuda it is miles one of the most considerations erat ions in planning transatlantic trans atlantic air se service arvice is the carry ng capacity of the planes although the caledonia is allowed to load 45 pounds its empty weight is pounds and it requires pounds of fuel and oil thus only 1000 pounds remain for crew mail and passengers it is believed however that the maximum load may be increased pounds safely enough IQ ID western newspaper union |