New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1921-07-03
French Commercial Aviation
Develops to Timetable Stage
Five international Lines Center in Paris and Offer
Strong Competition to British; Comfort in Serv
ice Sought; Innovations Constantly Installed

ons Constantly Installed
hand and smokes a cigarette with sort
of Donchalant air. Judging from tbs
encased binoculars on his arm. bs
has brought madame over from London
for the Grand Prix at Longchamps.
The Aerial Indicator, as one would
translate the French name of the book
let, it, however, more than a timetable
1t is one Of the evergrowing indicator,
that air travel is undoubtedly with us
to remain and develop and ms nov
reached a stage of commercial eyolu-
! ton in which competing companies
are striving to Guido one another ing.
as the railway and steamship lines are
/ constantly doing. This feature is read
plainly in the advertisements which in
tersperse the timetables. For exam.
pie, the air line company plying he
tween Paris and Warsaw via Prague,
Bohemia, assures its patrons that tho
"llmousines" of the line are the best to
be had and that they give the mari.
mum of comfort and security. This
company's competition is yet small. but
who knows better than its managers
that the day is coming when a constant
stream of airplanes Will ply the air
daily between France and Bohemia and
Poland and doubtless Rome, Vienna,
Constantinople, Athens, Sofia and in
fact, all the important cities of Euronao
French Lines in Strenuous
Competition With British
The Grand Express Company re-
quires full page of The Indicator tn
tell Its prospective patrons that it Of
fers a comfortable voyage between Lon
don and Paris and vice versa in
cabin salon closed and heated"
large reproduction of a photograph
shows the interior of the cabin salon
with luxurious chairs beside windows
not unlike those of an American parIor
car. This firm is already in strenuous
competition for air trade against Brit
lsh air lines, which offer an equally
comfortable voyage.
A southern line advertises "secur;tv
speed, comfort, enchantment." and
guarantees a voyage from Bordeaux to
toulouse in seventy-fve minutes. Bor-
deauX is on the Atlantic coast and Ton
louise is in view of the marvellous Pvr-
ennees Mountains, which divide France
and Spain.
Another company, plying between
Paris and Warsaw, Poland, offers 30
take the passenger with ultra rapid"
service to Prague in six hours and
Warsaw in nine hours, at rates lower
than those at which the trip between
these cities may now be made bv rail.
i he scheduled fare between Paris and
Warsaw and vice versa is 500 francs.
or slightly less than $40 at present ex-
change rates.
Though these long distance air flights
are in their infancy. the occasional
personal in a Paris newspaper. stat
ing briefly that Mr.. or Mrs. Somebody
or other'' departed to-day for Bohemia.
Holland, Spain or Africa by air creates
little interest any more. The Paris
LONDON voyage is now even too COM
mon for personal mention.
Innovation follows innovation in the
ne" mode of spanning space A great
steamship company whose boats ply
between Havre and the United States
and Havre and South America has set
the pace in combination air and sea-
taaVel, which other lines will eventually
De forced TO emulate. Passengers or
friends OF passengers may carry their
light baggage to an Office in the center
of Paris. Here an automobile wbisLs
them to the aerial Grand Central"
they go aboard a luxurious air liner
and within an hour are on the wharf
ready to board the steamer. Heavy
baggage is sent by rail marked either
for the hold or for the stateroom. The
steamship company takes all response
b'llty for the baggage at a minimum
charge, and the passengers fare via
air is also at the minimum.
Those who profess TO look into the
rear future see the end of slow NOV
ing, crowded boat trains, which for dec.
AIDES have been running between tie
ports and the French capital. These
trains are chartered from the various
railway companies by the steamship
agencies at considerable EXPENSE.
Within comparatively brief time it
is believed that air navigation will
have developed sufficiently to make the
AR boat train" more Of an economy
than novelty.
Enthusiasts Predict Speed
OF 800 to $50 Miles an Hour
The greatest enthusiasts of all for
the future of aerial navigation are the
pilots who are now accustomed to long
distance commercial fights and make
1t as much a regular business as 90
the engineers of passen ger or express
trains. There are few of these men
who are not confident that a remark
ably short time will see aerial nayiga-
ton by heavier-than- air machines
regular thing between Z rope and
North and South America. The air
plane of the future, they behave, viii
fly in the greater attitudes, wi ere the