MY AIR ARMADA By Air-Marshal Italo Balbo The flight from
Rome to Chicago organized by General (since Marshal) Balbo certainly appealed to the imagination of the world, but one doubts whether this book (Hurst and Blackett, 18s.) will be as widely acclaimed as the feat described in it. Anyone who has flown for more than ten hours will admit that even flying over land becomes monotonous ; over the sea boredom may well become intense. Consequently, the de- scription of the flight becomes exceedingly tedious, and the Marshal's somewhat florid style does little to enliven the scene. Even when the machines were over land he finds laborious padding necessary : " Sunderland . . . with a population of 120,000." Did he count them from the air ? Unfortunately, his printer makes him fly over Edinburgh at 60,000 feet, twice the height of Everest, so one must refer to the Census for the population of that city. One important lesson should be learnt from this book : the impracticability of the North Atlantic air route with aircraft at their present state of development. Anyone reading the description of the climatic difficulties would be unlikely to confide a postcard, let alone himself, to a trans-Atlantic machine. Even if the weather is favourable, not more than a day will be saved. Those few hours seem scarcely to justify the toll of life taken by trans-Atlantic flights. Such deductions from General Balbo's experiences do not, of course, detract from the courage of himself and his companions. But one becomes tired of the scientific excuse for a hazardous personal adventure.
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