AERONAUTICS: Seadromes

Engineer Howard R. Armstrong is a man of vision, but hardly a visionary. He has flown in airplanes for over 20 years. He has ascended professionally to the head of the mechanical experimental division of the vast E. I. du Pont de Nemours Co. of Wilmington Del. When he talked last week of a plan that has been in his head for 20 years, he got a respectful hearing from Army and Navy officials, the press and his fellow scientists.

He called them “seadromes”— enormous floating islands of steel and concrete, to cover 100 or more acres and be anchored at intervals across the Atlantic. Brilliant searchlights would radiate from them, and to them would swoop ocean-crossing aircraft, heavy-laden with freight and passengers. In the seadromes’ vitals, which would extend so far down into the deep ocean that no wave-motion would be noticed by the most squeamish visitor, would be fuel and food supplies, machine shops and the foundations of hotels where ocean travelers could rest en route between Atlantic City, N. J., and Plymouth, England. Engineer Armstrong believes that where distance is the object of aviation, speed should be sacrificed for the sake of safety and comfort.

In a tank at Engineer Armstrong’s home are some model seadromes, and a model of the great S. S. Majestic. When he invited experts to hear him out last week, it was also to see him demonstrate his seadromes’ seaworthiness, by switching on fans to whip the tank into a maelstrom that would sink the miniature Majestic while the floating islands tugged but mildly at their anchors.