What It Is Like Riding In A Sikorsky Clipper

[Dave Homewood]

MODERN EXPRESSES OF THE AIR

WHAT IT IS LIKE RIDING IN A SIKORSKY CLIPPER

By AILERON

THE survey Clipper of the great Pan-American fleet has come and gone and all Auckland has been left marvelling at the speed of modern commercial airways. The announcement made some time ago, that the distance of nearly 7000 miles separating Auckland from San Francisco could be spanned by a regular air service in four and a half days, was accepted, but its full significance was not realised. It required the recent flight of the giant Sikorsky, and the presence of the big silver ship in Auckland, to convince everyone that such a service is not only practicable, but likely to be a reality before the end of the year.

Months were required in the days of sail for the journey from the Pacific Coast of the United States to New Zealand, which was then a remote island in the South Pacific. The advent of the steamer, and later of the motorliner, reduced the time from months to weeks, but still New Zealand was comparatively isolated from the rest of the world. It remained for the most modern form of transport, the aircraft, to reduce the time from weeks to a mere matter of days.

Actual Flying-Time
Four and a-half days has been mentioned as the probable time required for a 25-ton Martin Clipper of Pan-American Airways to complete the journey from San Francisco to Auckland. This is the total time that will be required for the trip, not the flying time, which is actually a matter of hours.

The Sikorsky, commanded by Captain Edwin C. Musick, spent only 49 hours 20 minutes in the air; the remainder of the time was spent at the various ports of call, inspecting harbours and possible sites for future bases when the permanent service is commenced.

Boys and girls of to-day are growing up in a most interesting period in the history of the Dominion, the period which is witnessing the introduction of air transport in the real sense of the word in New Zealand. In perhaps 10 or 15 years' time, present-day youths may turn to back files of the newspapers and wonder why such a great fuss was made of the flight of the Sikorsky, and why newspapermen, reporters and photographers, were at such pains to record every detail of each aspect of the flight.

No Limit
To them, having grown up with commercial aviation, as it were, such flights will be a mere matter of course, and the great Sikorsky on which all Aucklanders have looked with awe in recent weeks, will be an old-fashioned machine.

It is perhaps difficult for the boys and girls of Auckland, and indeed of the whole of New Zealand, to realise that the flight of the Pan-American survey Clipper to New Zealand was in a way quite as important as the arrival here of the pioneering ships bringing the colonists who built the country. None the less it is true, for the Sikorsky is only the fore-runner of other and bigger flying-boats that in years to come will reduce still further the time for travelling from the Dominion to America.

The representative of Pan-American Airways in New Zealand, Mr Harold Gatty, said recently in a public address that there was no limit to the size of flying-boats, and mentioned that his company already had under construction huge Boeing ships that would dwarf the Sikorsky visiting Auckland. Designers are already working to produce craft that will fly through the stratosphere, that layer of thin air many miles above the earth's surface, at speeds of perhaps 500 miles an hour, and it is more than likely that before the boys of to-day have reached their prime, such things will be no mere fancies, but practical realities.


Route of the transpacific survey flight: A map showing the terminal point and intermediate stopping places on the air route covered by the Pan American Airways' Sikorsky Clipper on the flight between San Francisco and Auckland.

The brilliant designers and engineers who are responsible for the wonderful aircraft of the present day are never satisfied with their work. They are always striving to solve new problems, and to incorporate their discoveries in newer and better machines. That is why the Sikorsky we saw in Auckland, although marvellous in our eyes, is nothing to cause a sensation in the United States, where there are already the much larger and faster Martin flying-boats.

Flight to Napier.
Within a few short months, the first of the Martin Clippers to visit Auckland will probably come sweeping in like a great silver bird to alight on the harbour, and all Auckland will be there to see it. After the first few trips, however, people will scarcely give it a second glance, so rapidly do men and women become accustomed to new wonders. The difference between the ordinary little club machines, de Havilland Moths and Avro Avians, to which most people in New Zealand are thoroughly accustomed, and the Sikorsky Clipper, can be appreciated fully only by one who has flown in both types.

Aileron was privileged to fly from Auckland to Napier and back in the Clipper last week, and found the trip a revelation. Aerial travel takes on a new meaning in one of these modern expresses of the air. Most people making their first flight, or flying after they have not been in the air for some months, cannot as a rule overcome a slight feeling of nervousness for the first few minutes after the take-off. The roar of the motor, the thought that safety depends on a single engine, and the rush of the wind, all combine to produce this feeling, which, however, usually disappears after a few minutes. In the Clipper, however, there was no such sensation.

"In A Big Arm-Chair."
Can you imagine sitting in a big armchair at home, with plenty of light and ventilation and the utmost comfort, and then to have the whole room gently lifted, with hardly any noise, and no vibration, until it is more than a mile above the earth, and travelling at 170 miles an hour? That is the sensation of flight in the Sikorsky, and experts say that the Martins, which are to be used regularly on the New Zealand service, are even more comfortable and quiet, while being equally safe.

It is "no wonder that passengers in the Sikorsky were enthusiastic. They had every reason to be, and there is no doubt that the general public will become as rapidly accustomed to long-distance ocean travel by air, as it has to similar voyages by ship. The boys at school now will, as businessmen, think no more of flying to America than the young man of the present thinks of driving his ear to the beach for the week-end.

It will be an essential part of everyday life.

NEW ZEALAND HERALD, 10 APRIL 1937