1 OCTOBER 1937, Page 3

* * * * Trans-Atlantic Flights The last of the

series of trans-Atlantic experimental flights has been made by the Cambria in the record time of to hours 36 minutes, thus surpassing the previous record of the Caledonia by nearly an hour. Captain Powell and the crew, and Imperial Airways are alike to be congratulated on this result. Technically the chief interest of the flight attaches to the manner in which Captain Powell experimented with altitude until he found that which gave him the greatest assistance from the tail wind. From a more general point of view it brings a regular trans-Atlantic air mail service a considerable step nearer to realisation. While the advantages of rapid•communications are sometimes overrated, nothing but good can result from accelerating the exchange of official and commercial documents between this country and America. The cable and the wireless cannot vie with the written communication for the combination of secrecy with accuracy. Yet the wireless plays a part of dominant import- ance in trans-Atlantic flying, for it alone makes possible suffi- cient meteorological information to be acquired for the air to be practical as a means of transporting public or private documents which are important enough to justify the extra cost of despatch by this means.