Global Transportation 77 



sengers with eighty pounds of baggage apiece, plus twenty- 

 five thousand pounds of mail, cargo, and express. He esti- 

 mates that the plane would make the trip from New York 

 to London in thirteen hours with the wind, and in nineteen 

 hours against the wind. 



The plane would have almost all the comforts of a luxury 

 liner equipped with showers and baths, a lounge where 

 games could be played, and observation rooms. 



An idea of the tremendous size of the 250,000 pound plane 

 is gained by a study of another Martin plane, the 140,000 

 pound Mars Flying Boat, which was built for the United 

 States Navy. The Mars was originally designed as a patrol 

 bomber, but has been converted for cargo use. It has four 

 Wright Cyclone engines, and its fuel capacity is about a tank- 

 car load. 



The flight deck of the Mars is larger than the interior of 

 a twenty-one-passenger airliner. Auxiliary motors drive eight 

 generators supplying electricity, and there are twenty-four 

 telephone stations on the plane for the crew of eleven men. 

 Each of the Mars' twin rudders is twice as tall as a tall man, 

 and between them are thirty-foot elevators. Each aileron is 

 longer than the entire wing span of an average fighter 

 plane. 



The f arsighted designer of the Mars is confident that domes- 

 tic air travel will boom when the war is over. "But the spec- 

 tacular development will be in the ocean field the field of 

 flying ships that will grow larger and larger. With them we 

 shall rehabilitate a weary world, draw it closer together, 

 re-establish the broken threads of commerce, cross the last 

 frontiers of isolation." He added, "There is no technical limit 

 to the size of planes; the only limit is the amount of payload 

 available. We should be able to build 5oo,ooo-pound air- 

 planes in a few years." 



W. W. Davies, research engineer of United Airlines, wants 



