Evening star., 1933-12-05
Seadrome Project Is Placed
Among Most Difficult Tasks

Efforts made to induce the Public
Works Administration to finance
through loans the construction of sea-
dromes across the North Atlantic, for
the benefit of aviators. result in a dis
cussion in which chief emphasis is
placed upon obstacles.
1T is a dull imagination that fails to
kindle at the suggestion" says the New
York Times, picturing "a line of steel
and cement floating islands across the
Atlantic, to serve as landing stations for
airplaneS carrying a heavier paving
load than is now possible" The Times
recites the plan to establish "a platform
1,225 feet long and 800 feet wide. so
buoyed in midocean that it will ride
out any gale, escape inundation by
waves. always trail into the wind and
invariably present a substantially hori-
zontal surface to landing and departing
planes" The Times concluded: The
spending of money needed will be de-
batable. Nature provided landing places
not more than 500 miles apart on the
Iceland Greenland Great Circle. Will
its weather, the worst in the world, re-
main unconquerable? Even the leap of
1000 miles to the Azores is no longer
llODeleSS IN Ine lRnC OF
recent airplane progress 1t is now pos
sible to build machines which, with a
cruising range of 5000 miles and a
speed of l60 miles an hour, can carry a
pay-load of five passengers, 500 pounds
of mail and a crew of six. Surely this
Is not the end. AS for the builders of
Zeppelins, they will sigh when they
think what they could do with $780,
100000. Swift and picturesque as the
airplane may be, to them the crossing
and recrossing of the Atlantic with q
score of paying passengers is already a
commercial reality"
"A twenty-four hour plane trip to
Europe on regular schedule" appeals
TO the imagination of the Sioux CITY
Journal, which quotes aviation experts
in support of the thought that lit is
practicable through the use Of floating
stations" Agreeing that while the
Atlantic frequently has been flown in
two directions, it is still a perilous un-
dertaking to attempt nonstop fight. /"
the Journal offers the Judgment mo
one considers now that in a good plane
with a seasoned pilot there are as many
chances for disaster as there are for
success. In the last half dozen wears
or SO long-distance flying has made
rapid and profound progress. Planes
are more enduring and are faster, and
pilots are more resourceful. Twenty
four hours from New York to Paris or
London is something to challenge the
imagination, when the best steamship
time is little short of five days But
"a hours from New York to London or
ralE taxes on q new meaning when
there seems to be reasonable assurance
na that sti; it can n be be and & yin be done in com
Iley OIL SlOIl hObS. M doubt will become
popular for travellers in an age that
sees transportation land, at sea and
by year"
Reviewing the work that has been
done Tor land aviation with funds from
the Public Works Board. the San An
tonic Express advises that this coun-
try now leads the world in commercial
aviation, and should maintain that DO
sition by generous support" Pointing
out that "landlubbers cannot bring
themselves to the conviction that trans
oceanic flying on a commercial basis
is an immediate prospect" the New
Castle News quotes DR.. James H. KIM
ball, weather mentor for TRANSATLANTIC
flights. with the comment: Because
the airplane is still largely q fair
weather transportation medium, DR..
Kimban predicts that the southern
course by way Of Bermuda and the
Azores will be the first transatlantic
flying route between North America and
Europe. This route is generally free of
fogs and its storms are local. Appar-
emily this authority considers the air
plane mechanically fit for the gruelling
grind Of spanning the ocean with heavy