The world's largest land plane ( described by its creators as a flying palace of culture ) has started its tour of the Soviet Union - the plane is the Maxim Gorki built to carry the voice of the Soviet Union into the most obscure villages and hamlets of Russia - the enormous aircraft which has a wingspan of about two hundred feet and a flying weight of forty-two tons - can carry seventy passengers and is equipped with radio receiving and transmitting apparatus , a talking film projector , printing plant capable of producing thousands of newspapers in the air and huge loudspeakers for broadcasting propaganda from the air to the people below - it can travel comfortably at speeds in excess of 150 miles an hour under the power of eight motors January 24th 1935