y season--at Blackpool
alone they took up 10,000 passengers before the service was two months
old. Hendon, beginning passenger flights on the same date, went in for
exhibition and passenger flying, and on June 21st the aerial Derby
was won by Captain Gathergood on an Airco 4R machine with a Napier 450
horse-power 'Lion' engine; incidentally the speed of 129.3 miles per
hour was officially recognised as constituting the world's record for
speed within a closed circuit. On July 17th a Fiat B.R. biplane with a
700 horse-power engine landed at Kenley aerodrome after having made a
non-stop flight of 1,100 miles. The maximum speed of this machine was
160 miles per hour, and it was claimed to be the fastest machine in
existence. On August 25th a daily service between London and Paris was
inaugurated by the Aircraft Manufacturing Company, Limited, who ran a
machine each way each day, starting at 12.30 and due to arrive at 2.45
p.m. The Handley-Page Company began a similar service in September
of 1919, but ran it on alternate days with machines capable of
accommodating ten passengers. The single fare in each case was fixed at
15 guineas and the parcel rate at 7s. 6d. per pound.

Meanwhile, in Germany, a number of passenger services had been in
operation from the early part of the year; the Berlin-Weimar service was
established on February 5th and Berlin-Hamburg on March 1st, both for
mail and passenger carrying. Berlin-Breslau was soon added, but the
first route opened remained most popular, 538 flights being made between
its opening and the end of April, while for March and April combined,
the Hamburg-Berlin route recorded only 262 flights. All three routes
were operated by a combine of German aeronautical firms entitled the
Deutsch Luft Rederie. The single fare between Hamburg and Berlin was
450 marks, between Berlin and Breslau 500 marks, and between Berlin
and Weimar 450 marks. Luggage was carried free of charge, but varied
according to the weight of the passenger, since the combined weight of
both passenger and luggage was not allowed to exceed a certain limit.

In America commercial flying had begun in May of 1918 with the mail
service between Washington, Philadelphia, and New York, which proved
that mail carrying is a commercial possibility, and also demonstrated
the remarkable reliability of the modern aeroplane by making 102
complete flights out of a possible total of 104 in November, 1918, at a
cost of 0.777 of a doll