16 NOVEMBER 1934, Page 3

Hopping the Atlantic In his recent announcement about the inauguration

by Imperial Airways of a seven days' air service to Australia, Sir Eric Geddes spoke also of the possibilities of a regular Atlantic service. This was not mere fantasy. Government officials are known to have been recently in communication with representatives of the Seadrome Ocean Dock Corporation, whose invention has been examined and approved by the United States Government. Floating seadromes, anchored in mid-ocean, complete with flight-deck, • hotel accommodation and storage room, are no longer a vague distant possibility. The design has been worked out in every detail and shown to be practicable. There is nothing to prevent their establishment, say 450 miles apart, between Europe and America or on any other sea-route, except the expense, which is calculated at about £6,000,000 a drome. So far from that being regarded as an insuperable difficulty, it is even calculated that a passage by transatlantic aeroplane, allowing for the charges of the seadromes, would not cost more than a first-class ticket on a luxury liner. * * *