The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-12-22

or the Indian government an English
 mail to Madras, with some representa-
 tion in them ail-carrying company of
 F'rech and Italian and Indian interests. Demand is, therefore, expected that the operation of the London-Paris mails by
 air be carried on by Franco British cap-
 tal. Franco British aircraft construc-
 iton in the mail-carrying company of
 French and Italian and Indian interests. every detail
 These expectations have led MT.
 Thomas to the organization, now nearly completed, of various subsidiary com panies intended to give the needed in- l ternational representation to his own company.
 For instance, the operation of mai1 | from Aberdeen to Stavadger by airplane 1 is not far off. The British end of it will | be operated by aircraft, travel and trans port, limited, which is under the same direction as the Aircraft Manufacturing company, and the Norwegian end will be operated by Det Norske Luftfartrederi ! Aktieselskap, of Christiania In the same way an allied French company, the Compagnie Generale Transaerienne, whose president is M. Henri Deutsche de l 10 Meurthe, will operate the French end of the London-Paris mails. M. de la Meurthe is one of Frances air pioneers
 and some years ago built and presented to
 the French government the early air shipts, Vile de Paris and La Patrie. In Italy, the British firm Is in alliance with the Societa Transport Aerei Interna- zionali, of which Prince Colonna, mayor of Rome, is president The Aerial Trans portation company of India, organized by Messrs. Tata, Ltd, is expected to link up the British concern in mail flights from London across France and Italy to India. Arrangements are under way for South African service to follow a cape to Cairo route.
 A year ago 80 miles an hour was taken as a safe actual speed for commercial airplanes.
 we can now take 100 miles an hour MT. Thomas said today, some of our machines are dolng 130 miles per hour"
 Even at 80 miles per hour, however,
 air transportation would place Rome within 12 hours of London instead of 42 hours and Constantinople in 20 hours instead of 72. At the same estimated speed, Bombay is two days away and Tolsio four or five days
 The need of good and frequent land ing grounds is emphasized by MT. l Thomas as a necessary precedent to the development of commercial flights on any large scale.
 Before the war" he said this aft ernoon. q entered Verrier for the Rallye de Monaco, a distance of 1000 ! miles, then perfectly feasible propo- sition. He left Hendon, and the first we heard of him was that he had land ed at Dion on what appeared to be good field. It was actually a swamp,
 however, and he broke the tail of his
 machine. It was hours before We heard from him and then it was all most impossible to reach him. This sort of thing cannot be al- l lowed to happen in commercial flights. The commercial machine, even though it is bound from London to Bombay,
 must always be within touch, not nec- | essarily of an aerodrome, but of a good landing ground. There ought to be landing grounds every 10 miles with wireless or other means of com munication with depots. Then if the
 mail came down with engine failure, the pilot would merely have to tele phone to the nearest depot and fresh
 machine and fresh pilot would soon be on the way to his relief. Just what is necessary in good landing ground is shown in an inci- dent during the German retreat in Belgium. The great aerodrome back of the old German 1ines St. Denis Wes- trum, for instance, were in German hands perfect landing grounds. But be- fore they were abandoned, a few fur rows were nuns across them with a ! blow, and as a result they are now 1 absolutely useless for landing grounds"