Owing to variation in the weather conditions, latitude in estimating the time of arrival mustbe permitted in each case. Where, however, there is a saving of several days in comparison with steamship travel, the difference of a few hours matters little.
In years to come, with the development of airship transport to the most distant centers of the world, it is conceivable that no important city will be further from London than ten days' journey. The following table, as applied to a London terminal, is by no means fantastic:
As the maximum distance of direct flight between intermediate stations is not more than three thousand, five hundred miles, it would be practicable to run these services with the size of airship described three million, five hundred thousand cubic feet capacity. The cost of operation for regular services would be approximately as for the Atlantic service—passengersat the rate of eight cents per mile, and mails at the rate of six cents per ounce. With the development of larger airships, carrying greater loads, the cost should be more economical.
I admit that such a near-Utopia of an air age may not be seen by the present decade, and that its attainment demands great results from science, statesmanship and business organization. Yet even to come within sight of world intercommunication as rapid as is indicated by the signposts of present-day aëronautics would make possible an era of greater prosperity, peace and friendliness. If people, their written communications and their goods can be taken from continent to continent as quickly, or nearly as quickly, as a cablegram, the twin evils of state parochialism and international misunderstanding will less often be dragged from the cupboard in which the world's racial skeletons are kept. The airship and the aëroplane may well become a greater influence towards internationalization than the signed covenant of the league of nations.