The sun., 1919-07-23
ENGINEER PREDICTS
AERO OCEAN LINES
Leon Cammen Sees Regular
y Traffic to Europe in the
Near Future.
TO 60 IN RELAYS
Thinks "Mother Ships" Will
Be Stationed in Midocean
Sees Big Profits.

Transatlantic aviation-can II be
made to pay In dollars and cents7 One
who figures that II can 10 Leon Cam
n,sn, an engineer. who talked last night
to the members OF the Aeronsutical 60
ciety OF America, Of which he 10 second
vioe-president at 10 West Thirty-ninth
street. He Viewed the mastering OF an
American air feet as q straight BUSH
ness proposition"
He said the course Of commercial n.y.
ing probably would DO from Montauk
Point to Ireland. with q relay at Sea-
This would mean" he explained,
that at certain points, say two, there
would be mother ships cruising. The
planes. directed to them by means of
radio lishtships, WOULD drop bags Of
goods carried on the deck and would
alisht on the water In the neighborhood
Of the mother ships. The bags would
be picked up by q relay plane and car
ried to the destination or the next relay
point, ~ the case might be. while the
plane that had performed its duty would
be picked UP from the water at leisure
and got ready for the next log Of the
flight
There may not be a. much elamor in
this as in a nonstop flight. but from
an operative point Of View II 10 the only
operate under far moro favorable oon-
ditions. work on q relay principle. and
no train from New York to Omaha. for
example. which Is approximately the
distance from New York 70 Europe.
would be expected TO carry fuel for the
entire trip. A system OF two relays
means that each plane would be in tht
air about seven hours of which prac-
tically every large we'll buir plane
ought to be capable to-day"
Would Garry Mail.
Air transportation. Mr.. Cammen con-
tinued. would be concerned with goods
for which speed was specially important,
which could stand q high freight rate
and which in themselves were not very
valuable. This would be principally
mail. The speaker said a recent investi-
CATION indicated that many thousands Of
letters would 80 daily by air mail II It
were available, and that the rate OF 81
an ounce would not be excessive. At
this rate the return feom the trip Of
plane capable of carrying 1000 pounds
of useful load would be $4,000. which
would pay for the maintenance Of the
mother ships and the rest OF the rather
expensive equipment.
Mainly because OF the high cost, Mr..
Cammen DID not think passenger trafiic
would develop soon. Rich men might
be In such hurry to cross the Atlantic
that they would pay $4,000 o. $4,000
for the privilege. but there would not
be enough OF them to maintain q regular
air ferry.
As between the airplane and ths dirig-
ibie, he said tho plane had tho better
chance OF commercial utilization. Con-
tending that the dirigible R-S4. which
crossed in seventy-five hours under good
weather conditions. could hardly better
Its record by more than is per cent. he
pointed out that Cunarders have made
the trip in a little over Ave days. and
said that plans are being laid for an
electrically propelled boat which will
cross In 100 hours. The slight advan-
tage of speed In favor OF the dIrigible
would hardly. In Mr.. Cammen's opinion.
offset the handicaps OF lesser safety.
public distrust and competition with the
high speed steamship and speedier air
plane.