A new flight is under way between Britai and the United States and its success may revolutionize fast air mail services, After months of experiment, the Mayo composite craft, which is composed of a large seaplane mother ship carrying a fast seaplane on its back. ims been successfully tested and the first Atlantic flight has commenced from Foynes, Ireland, to prove the practical character of the scheme. One of the chief difficulties of the small machine, heavily loaded with petrol and cargo for a long journey, is its in-abi to take off. The Mayo composite craft therefore attempts to solve the problem by lifting the machine into air and releasing it when flying speed has been reached. In this c " the Maia, carrying the Mercury, was flown to Foynes and the smaller craft was successfully launched in mid-air and is on its way to New York with a cargo which includes films of the visit to France of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. The idea is by no means new. It was tried during the Great War and both aeroplanes and airships have been used for launching purposes, but the practical commercial side has never before been touched until Short Brothers of Rochester decided to build along these lines with eye to fast ocean services which eliminate the practical difficulties of a machine carrying a pay load and fuel supplies so heavy that the machine is unable to get off the ground, or water, as the case may be. Once in the air, the flight becomes easy for there is an hourly decrease in the fuel load and the initial lift obviates ground difficulties while enabling the machine to carry more than it could if it had to take to the air under its power. Latest reports stated that the machine was making satisfactory progress and on the results of the flight are likely to be based important changes in the field of commercial aviation,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.