Humberside Collegiate Institute - Hermes Yearbook (Toronto, Ontario Canada)

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Hrne lfll-EVQWIEW' Aerial T mmpormtion Approximately twenty-five years ago man first flew a motored airplane. The duration of the flight was twelve seconds, and in that time the frail craft covered about two hundred feet. But this was just the beginning of a wonderful means of transportation that was destined to be of th-e greatest importance to the human race. XVhen, in 1919, Mr. Thomas, one of the leading British air pioneers. started the world's first daily airplane- express between London and Paris, he said we ought to regard it as the first short 250-mile section of a great airway, which, stage by stage, would stretch right through for 10,000 miles from England to the coast of Aus- tralia. That was but a few years ago, and today, in actual service, or in routes about to be opened, something like 8,000 miles of this great Empire Air- Line are already in existence. From London travellers can Hy any day they please as far as Hasle, Switzerland, and on certain days, continue on above Italy and across the Mediterranean to Cairo, there linking up with the Imperial Airways' 2,500- mile line which is operated across the desert and down the Persian Gulf to Karachi. Huge tri-motored Hercules air- planes, embodying all the experience gained in civil flying, are used on this Karachi service. Carrying fourteen passengers, their hulls are specially- designed to protect the occupants from heat or cold, and, they are big enough for meals to be served aboard them while in flight. A romance of airway engineering lies behind the building of this Cairo- Karachi route. Great gasoline storage tanks, to be sunk underground. had to be transported to points in the desert where the 'planes descend to refuel. Rest rooms had to be provided at remote places, where, before night- flying becomes regular, air-travellers will descend to spend the night. Wi1'eless telegraph and meteorological stations had to be installed also all along the entire route. On stages east of Calcutta, it is proposed to employ a new type of all- metal flying-boat. Such machines are fitted with cabins like sea-going ships, and with comfortable sleeping berths. The route that is to be used is from Calcutta to Rangoon and Singapore. This demonstrates clearly the speed and mobility of the perfected airplane. W'e shall have immense dirigibles spanning oceans and tlying thousands of miles without having to alight, even when carrying one hundred or more passengers. XYe shall see huge multi- motored leviathans of the air, and flying-boats carrying passengers over shorter land and coastal routesg and in addition there will be a host of small, swift craft engaged in carrying parties of passengers with mails and merchandise, to and fro on short trips, which will link up remote and outlying areas with large trans-oceanic and Continental routes. It used to be said that dirigibles and airplanes, as they grew more practical, would begin to compete seriously with each other. But such a statement is untrue. Each type has its own useful purpose. Supported in flight by huge gas-containers, the modern rigid air-

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N Q! THE Hi?.rQM5f them. He whispered, 'fVVrite to my mother . . . Alberta . . . The doctor nodded. Tell her . . . tell her . . . that I was not afraid when I died. They sent his mother his messageg they told her what he never knew- that Martin had obtained valuable information and that he had been the means of saving many men's lives, and they sent h-er his medal. They sent her, too, the words of the chaplain at his funeral service. The chaplain had more intuition than most men, and had known and understood Barclay well. He paid him this tribute: This man conquered fear. -H. Clark Bahtzer, IV-A. Northern Lights Faintly they form, at first Pale streaks in a velvet sky, Stealthily creeping high Then slipping back as if cursed. Their bars from the void step forth, Columns of sudden light That sway in the awful night Then sink to their fathomless source. Their tongues kindle and flare As if poked from some furnace below, Then die,-smouldering low And casting a lambent glare. Like an emerald glacial stream That dives beneath Northern snows -They disappear in rows And emerge with a beryl gleam. The rays are pierced with shades Of pink and of palest blue, And a pencil of orange hue That darts about and fades. To the very zenith they mountg Each streamer scintillates, Each light-rocket palpitates Till the dome of heaven vibrates, -A-A shimmering fire-fount. Then slowly, their long wings furled, Like a tired bird reaching the nest, They silently sink to rest And darkness recowls the world. -Edward A. Walton, V-A. 65

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,THE HQQM Ef NJ N ship can, if necessary, travel with a heavy load of one hundred passengers. for long distances without needing to alight. But the airplane, if it is to be used profitably, ought not to be bur- dened with too great a load of gasoline, the better course being to come down frequently for the purpose of refueling, otherwise passengers and cargo will have to be sacrificed in order to carry an immense dead- weight of fuel. Internationally important questions constantly arising make it vital that there should be frequent conventions over the destinies of the Empire. Here the use of the airplane will become indispensable. Not only in airplanes but also in giant dirigibles, the chiefs of governments, and the heads of great industries will be able to fly from one end of the Empire to the other with such speed and com- fort that it will be necessary to change our opinion of the meaning of the words time and distance The power of the Roman Empire rested upon its wonderfully-built roads. With the British Empire, so far, the keynote of its power is its world-'encircling sea-transport. But in the future, they will have to leave earth for air, and establish a mighty fleet of mercantile dirigibles and air- planes, capable of carrying mails, cargo and passengers to the remotest corners of the earth, in not more than a week or ten days air-travel from London. -Kennetlz Tlzowidyke, UI-E. A W M75 i, ii H' K 'N KKA Fl? '67