OAD-AIR ANSPORT
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By F. Handley Page, C.B.E.„ F.R.Ae.S,
The System of the Future, in Which Aircraft and Motor Vehicles, Acting in Co-liperation, Will Offer Many Advantages for Passenger and First-class Mail Traffic
COMMERCIALLY the aeroplane has several inherent advantages, including high speed, convenient size of the transport unit, independence of tracks, the ability to go direct from place to place, and the ability to ply equally over both land and water. I would not, however, assert, as I shall do in this article, that roacliair transport will be the dominant form of passenger and first-class mail transport of the
.future, if it were not that recent experience with large passenger-carrying aeroplanes has shown that these advantages can be obtained at an economic cost Before indicating how the latest air liners have reduced running and maintenance costs, I will establish the claim which aircraft have upon the attention of all transport operators by giving three eloquent facts. First, for every 400 li.p. the number of passengers carried by commercial aircraft has been increased in 13 years from five to eight. Second, the miles per gallon per passenger have been increased from 8 to 35, and, third, the cancellations of services for all causes have been reduced from 25 per cent. to 3 per cent. The methods by which these and other advances have been secured may now be examined.
Inherently the problem before the engineer charged with the production of a commerCial aeroplane is no more complex than that before the engineer charged with the production of a motor coach; but there is this difference, that the fund of experience available Bg0 is much less and that consequently every decision must be rationally rather than empirically based.
At the present moment the bulk of the chief British air-transport company's fleet consists of aircraft built by my company and known as the Handley Page type 42 biplanes. All aircraft having names which begin with the letter H, as "Heracles," "Hannibal," etc., are of this type. In the western form these aircraft, plying on the London-Paris route, carry 42 people, comprising a crew of four and 38 passengers. They have a wing span of 130 ft., an overall length of 89 ft. 9 ins. and 'a height of 27 ft., The all-up weight is 30,000 lb. The four air-cooled, radial engines are disposed at the leading edges of the top and bottom planes and give an aggregate brake horse power of 2,200.
The observed top speed at the working height of 4,600 ft. is 136 m.p.h., and the cruising speed DOW used in service is 105 m.p.h. The aircraft land at about 50 m.p.h. The passengers' accommodation is in two separate cabins, each passenger having 76 cubic ft. of space against the 40 cubic ft. of earlier machines. The fuselage is underslung, giving the passengers an unobstructed view of the ground and allowing the use of a door in what may best be described as the "lowloading position." External bracing wires are suppressed to eliminate the noises of high-frequency vibrations, and no passengers' seats are in the plane of the airscrews.
The choice of these particular features and this particular size was largely a matter of economics. Up to a point the cost per ton-mile decreases with increase in the size of the aircraft. Moreover, size is needed if the passengers are to be made comfortable. Again, the cost per ton-mile increases enormously with increase in speed. There weiuld be no difficulty in producing to-day a passenger-carrying aircraft capable of 200 m.p.h.; the difficulty would be to find the company rich enough to operate it. High speed also entails increased risks.
A truly amazing response on the part of the travelling public has been the reward of putting suitable aircraft into service. The type 42 machines are now carrying 78 per cent. of all the London-Paris air traffic. Out of a grand total of 3,795 passengers at the airport of London in January, 1933, 2,249 were carried in these machines.. Fuel is used at the rate of 107 gallons per hour and in stilt air 105 miles will be covered in that hour.
These facts show that the Modern commercial aircraft is hard-working, comfortable, trustworthy, safe and economical. It is not, however, complete in itself, for it must call upon the road vehicle for terminal communications. Road and air vehicles are naturally complementary, and together they alone can provide the kind of elastic and quick transport system that suits modern requirements.
Full use has not yet been made of road-air transport: England—in spite of all that has been said to the contrary—offers enormous scone for the establishment of internal air lines. It is not only routes such as those served by the Bristol 'Channel air ferry, the Isle of Wight air ferry and the Hillman, services between London and the east coast resorts that are concerned, but many other direct routes cutting across the railway routes. The south-coast towns, for instance, could be linked up.by air and the line taken on, perhaps, to Bristol.
The map abounds with similar instances of routes where road-air systems must eventually be profitable. For passenger _traffic on certain routes the railways could not compete with them, no matter how efficiently they were run nor bow heavily, within reason, they were favoured by governmental .restriction of other forms of transport.The system of the fixed track and the mass load, in which large numbers of people are moved at the same time, is a system of the past. The most intensive official meddling with road vehicles and with aircraft will never check the natural obsolescence of the fixed-track system.
Autostradas and airways, between them, will provide the traffic lanes of the future. Already 38-passenger aeroplanes, capable of co-operating with motor coaches in the establishment of fain inland traffic 'routes, 'are available; and transport operators with the means and the vision to set them profitably to work will soon fake action.