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Aviation History
1919
1919 - 0778.PDF
JUNE 12, 1919 An aeroplane service from Bombay should cover the distance in about 17 hours, a saving of about 30 hours each way. I suggest that the most important internal routes in India are :— 1. Bombay, via Delhi and Lahore, to Peshawar. 2. Bombay to Calcutta. 3. Bombay to Madras. 4. Bombay, via Mysore, to Colombo. 5. Bombay, via Baroda, to Karachi. 6. Calcutta to Madras. 7. Calcutta, via Cawnpore, to Delhi. 8. Madras to Colombo. 9. Madras, via Hyderabad, to Jhansi, for Delhi and the north. 10. Peshawar, via Indus Valley, to Quetta and Karachi. 11. Delhi, via Bikaneer, to Karachi. 1. Bombay to Peshawar, via Delhi— (a) G.I.P. and N.W.R. .. (b) B.B. and C.I.R. 2. Bombay to Karachi, via Baroda 3. Bombay to Calcutta— (a) E.I. and G.I.P.R. (b) B.N. and G.I.P.R. .. 4. Bombay to Madras 5. Calcutta to Madras 6. Calcutta to Delhi 7. Madras to Colombo 8. Madras to Jhansi Junc tion, via Dhond and Manmad Miles . 1.542 I.450 992 1.349 1,223 794 1,030 903 700 1.314 Hour s 55 53 46 43 46 36 41 28 35 64 23 271 21 31 26£ 22 25 32* 20 20j Aeropl a (70 m.p . (Hours . 22 20| I4i I9± 17* Hi ui ii\ 10 18J Tim e saved . (Hour s 33 32£ 3i| 23l 28^ 24$ 26J 15* 25 45* Generally speaking, the less Government control there is over any new development in the world the better. The heavy, inelastic, and clogging hand of Government has rarely done anything in the history of this country to encourage new developments, and the Government of India, by its composition and nature, can never be extravagantly pro gressive. I would say, at the risk of being officially censured for daring to doubt its divine wisdom, that the Government of India had better encourage private enterprise in aviation rather than endeavour to manage all air services and operation itself. How great meteorology concerns flying has not yet been generally realised. In India there are two distinct climatic periods in ever '- year. There is the tranquil period of the north-east monsoon from October to May, and the more disturbed period during the south-west monsoon from the end of May to October. Owing to the use of free high altitude balloons we have been able recently to ascertain that the south-west current is comparatively shallow, rarely over 10,000 ft. in depth, and that above the clouds, which probably extend to about 8,000 ft., there is generally a clear sky. This fact may rob the monsoon period of many of its drawbacks. In winter, on the other hand, conditions are curiously dis similar to the summer conditions. A light north-easterly wind blows over the surface of the Indian peninsula until a height of about 15,000 ft. to 20,000 ft. is reached. At that altitude a strong west wind, sometimes attaining a speed of 100 miles an hour, is encountered. As regards other weather conditions, dust storms are dangerous at times, but rarely affect the weather higher than 4,000 ft. to 5,000ft. Dust devils, as they are called, those small erratic whirlwinds of local violence, are never, so far as my flying experience in Indian goes, felt above 3,000 ft. As regards the south west monsoon period and the intense humidity prevailing then, no doubt special arrangements will be made to insulate all the electrical and wireless connections on machines. I have now called your attention to these insignificant draw backs of the Indian climate, and it only remains for me to state that from September to June, on nine days out of ten, the weather is perfect for flying, the visibility exceedingly good, and the average air currents under 10 miles an hour in velocity. It may interest you to know that in recent conversations with the Postmaster-General in India, Mr. Geoffrey Clarke, I learned with pleasure that he was strongly in favour of air mail services being started in India at once, and hoped that contracts would be sanctioned with private commercial com panies rather than any attempt made to work direct through the R.A.F. I am sure that no disparagement was intended in his mind as to the capabilities cf the R.A.F. to undertake any work anywhere. But from many points of view a com mercial company undertaking air mail services would be in a freer and more favourable position, while the risks in separable from early development would not be borne by the Government of India. The Government of India should, in my opinion, make contracts with groups or companies really capable of carrying out their contracts in the same way as the sea mails are now confided to the care of the P. and O. Company. I am often asked how soon passenger services by air will be established between India and England. In reply I would say, first of all, let us establish for at least a year regular postal services, for the experience gained thereby will avoid loss of valuable lives, and the discouragement which is bound to come when only a proportion of the hopes we set out with are realised. Moreover, I think it will be a long time before it is commercially profitable to fly passengers, on account of their weight compared with mails. The world is ready to pay much more per ounce for the rapid conveyance of information and news than it is prepared to pav for the transport of human bodies. But, of course, a year hence, if money is no object, anyone will be able to fly between England and India, and in time the fares will be much reduced. I have worked out the following table to show the truth of this assertion. Taking the average load of a man with a very limited amount of luggage as weighing 12 stone, this weight comes out at 2,688 oz. We will assume that airgrams pay at the rate of 2s. 6d. an ounce. If 2,688 oz. be taken in the form of postal matter we get a return of £336. Now a man would have to be very rich, or in a great hurry, to pay £336 for a passage between India and England, and the price is a prohibitive one to ordinary persons. At the price of 2s. 6d. per ounce of airgrams, the conveyance of a ton would return £4,480, and the aeroplane flying mails at this rate between England and India would, therefore, earn about £1 per mile by the present route. Against these receipts I venture to put the expense at about 105. a mile, including all ordinary expenses, depreciation, and interest at 7$ per cent, on capital. As regards passengers only, it takes only thirteen and a third men to weigh a ton at an allowance of 12 stone for each man and baggage, and one can hardly imagine 13 men, apart from the third of a man, paying collectively £4,480 for a passage between Karachi and London. It is clear, therefore, that at first the main payable traffic by airt must consist of what the Post Office calls " mail matter," and I am sure that the commercial world in India, here and elsewhere, when services become regular—the most important point of mail services—and rapid, will use air services very largely. It is interesting to note that about 5.000 words can be written on thin foreign paper and, with envelope and stamp, weigh just under an ounce in weight. Any such letter up to 5,000 words in length could be taken the 5,000 miles, the present route, in 48 hours, and for 2s. 6d. A cablegram, on the other hand, of the same length would cost at present prices of cabling a rupee a word. It would take four to five days as a minimum : it would probably be somewhat mutilated in transmission, and cost £416, as against 25. 6d. The subject of flying, apart from mails, to India and in India, is so large a one that I must not let myself go into " all the branches and aspects of it. But as to mail services to England, I would like to bring to your notice the fact that the present war route, via Cairo, Damascus, and Meso potamia, is by no means the most direct, and that something like 1,000 miles would be saved by following a direct line from Cairo via Akabah to Basra, the distance being only 790 miles between Cairo and Basra. As my old friend General Seely, the Minister now in charge of the R.A.F., is in the chair to-day, I would ask him to remember that India deserves some of our best pilots and machines. The time is past, also, when India should be looked upon as the dumping ground for inferior aeroplanes, and I may remark that when I left India about two months ago we had not a single machine there which could have flown with safety over any height or pass exceeding 8,000 ft. The bomb ing, therefore, of Cabul, the capital of Afghanistan, from Parachinar, the closest point in our territory, only 75 miles distant, was impossible, because there was no machine in India which had " ceiling " enough to get over the inter vening ranges, especially the Peiwar Kotal, 15 miles west of Parachinar, which forms the frontier between British territory 778
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