The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-12-29

I ing achievement of no consequence whatever.
 "We shall not. at the first, at any
 rate, make any startling speed records, such as the smaller speciality planes have made during the war We shall average probably about 100 miles an hour, making the long flight between here and St. Johns in 22 hours. and the
 shorter leg to New York in another 10 hours. more or less. Altitude, of course. we should never aim at except per- haps in highly abnormal weather con ditions. Ordinarily the flight would be made at from 500o to 40o0 feet.
 NOT OVER SIX PASSENGERS "As to passengers, the present super Handley-Page plane would be limited to five or six. The fact that the same lplane can carry 50 passengers around
 London, and 20 or more from London
 to Paris, argues nothing as to the num- Der that can be carried on a flight of more than 2000 miles On the shorter flight weight may be allowed for pass sengers. On the larger flight we must
 keep our carrying capacity for the petrol which is necessary to complete the Journey I should say that six passengers would be the absolute limit
 at the present stage of the planes de- lvelopment. and those would have to be rather strictly limited in their baggage.
 This brings me around to the ques- tion of charges-the price of the tick ct, so to speak. The tariff would have to be based exclusively on weight If a passenger wished to bring along 8 trunk with him that weighed as much as another passenger would weigh, he will be charged practically the same rate as two passengers.
 And that charge is going to be high. of course. We are not as yet quoting I rates, and I can only estimate rough | ly what we think the tariff is going to be. But my estimate is that the trip will cost each passenger at least $500, and quite possibly as much as $1000. To explain how these tariffs have been estimated would, of course, be inadvisa- ble, because it would give our possible rivals a dangerous knowledge of our production cost, maintenance, operating expenses and balance sheet generally, at a time when we do not yet fully un- derstand these problems ourselves. But
 I assure you that if you saw the fig
 ures you would not feel that it was ex- sessive.
 '.Furthermore, whatever the price we
 may be forced to set, the service will be
 worth it. Consider your hustling Ameri- can manufacturer, say, with an immense business deal to close in England. Think | of the advantage he enjoys, when he makes the trip by our aeroplanes in 36 hours, over his competitor who comes iby steamer in six days. It might con- l ceivably be worth hundreds of thou sands to him. The case is analogous, ! though not completely so, perhaps, tos | that of the industrial plant of 30 years ago which broke down financially be- cause 1t was not located on the rail- road, whereas it's competitor was so To- cated. But, while in that case 1t was necessary for the worsted competitor to wait for the railroad to come to him, in the present instance it will be possible | for both parties to come to the air line, and after one experience of being beaten | by rival who was not afraid to invest | money in an invaluable time economy, it is my opinion that every sane business man will come to it.
 l Tn fact, there is in my mind no ques- l ton of the universal use of the plane l once we have line running. All busi- ness men, whether they like it or not I will have to come to it''
 But what is a passenger to have for l his 5000 besides the time saved?' | asked. What about comfort? What about safely?
 JOURNEY TO BE COMFORTABLE The plane here IS the answer to the first question: said MT. Handfey- Page You can sit comfortably in it. You can walk around. There is no reason why with the few passengers to be carried on a Transatlantic trip a game of cards or any other amusement short of vigor- ous athletic exercises cannot be enjoyed in the room available. The car can be electrically heated to any temporal re you desire. It is simply question of weight whether an electrical cooking department should be carried Probably 1t would not. however. for passengers
 would probably prefer to be more nu- merous, pay less fare and, since it is
 merely for P hours, enjoy excellent food
 out of thermos flasks and boxes Again,
 srace for sleeping berths would hardly
 be practicable except by a great reduc-
 ton of the passenger list. But with
 reasonable number of catnaps in com
 fortable chairs, one could certainly pass