Seadrome

For nearly a year Germany's Luft Hansa air lines have been experimenting with a converted freight steamer, the S. S. Westphalen, as a mid-ocean station for airplanes (TIME, May 15). Last week a flying boat crossed from Africa to Brazil, via the Westphalen, in the latter's first dress rehearsal.

The flying boat was a twin-motored Dornier Wal* named Monsoon, of the type which Capt. Wolfgang von Gronau thrice flew from Germany to the U. S. Carrying a crew of four and a Luft Hansa director, the Monsoon flew up from British Gambia, headed west by south, caught the radio beacon of the Westphalen. Smack on her course after six hours the Monsoon picked up the floating airdrome in the middle of the Atlantic. Unlike an aircraft carrier, or a huge mid-ocean landing field such as the U. S. Public Works Administration has been asked to finance (at $30,000,000 for a chain of five between the U. S. and Europe),/- the Westphalen is too small to allow planes to land on her deck. If the water is smooth it is a simple matter for the Westphalen--or any surface ship--to hoist a flying boat aboard. In rough weather this is dangerous as well as difficult. The Westphalen employs an ingenious system:

Attached to the steamer's stern is an enormous tarpaulin apron criss-crossed by wooden laths, called a drag-sail. When the steamer is at rest, or barely making headway, the drag-sail trails below the surface. There it lies while the plane taxies up to the steamer's stern. As soon as the plane is in position, the Westphalen picks up speed, with the plane taxiing after her. The towing force lifts the drag-sail to the surface where it smooths the water, makes a floor for the plane. Winches are brought into play and presently plane, apron and all are hoisted aboard like a toy in a napkin. The plane is mounted on the Westphalen's catapult whence it is shot off to continue its journey. After its overnight stop last week, the Monsoon was shot off in the morning for an easy day's flight of 950 mi. to Natal, Brazil. Total elapsed time across the ocean: 33 1/2 hr. Other flying boats were standing by for additional rehearsal flights during the coming rainy season for the regular service which is to begin, with mail only, next spring.

Equipped with cooling apparatus for tropical weather, the Westphalen is prepared for an indefinite stay. Her crew of 40 is divided between two skippers, one commanding the Westphalen as a ship, the other as a seadrome.

* Last week the Dornier company announced it will move its plant from Friedrichshafen, on Lake Constance in the Alps, to Wismar Bay on the Baltic. The Lake Constance site, where the Zeppelin works also is situated, is too far from the sea for efficient testing and servicing of seaplanes. At Wismar Bay the new Dornier plant will be handily near an important base of Luft Hansa.

/- Last fortnight famed Pilot Clarence Duncan Chamberlin (New York-Germany), aviation chairman of the Society of Automotive Engineers., pooh-poohed this project as possible but ''very impractical." His argument: For less money, planes can be built (and lines subsidized) to cross the ocean without artificial stations.

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