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Aviation History
1920
1920 - 0152.PDF
t>e gradually built up which will foster the industry of theImperial Commonwealth ; act in unity indirectly both as a guardian of the peace and as a great reserve to the serviceof scientific skill; and finallyjprovide trained personnel and material in. the last resort of war. • • II. DESCRIPTION OF THE ROUTES .' » Egypt to IndiaStarting from Kantara the aerial route to India proceeds across the Sinai desert through Palestine to Damascus, aconsiderable amount of difficult and hilly country being covered in the flight. From Damascus an easterly courseis steered across the Syrian desert to Baghdad, whence, under conditions of little geographical difficulty, a south-easterlycourse, more or less following the river Tigris, brings us to Basrah. From Basrah the northern shore of the PersianGulf is followed via Bushire to Bunder Abbas. It is necessary, in this section, to skirt the shore, as the mountainous natureof the country, and scarcity of possible landing-grounds ;- render a direct course undesirable. From Bunder Abbas•' to Karachi via Charbar it is once again a question of skirting v- the seaboard owing to the inhospitable and mountainous:,- nature of the country, were a point to point course steered. Other aerodromes which exist on this route have at present, only been organised as emergency landing-grounds. Once in India, there are several alternative routes in the trans-Indian journey. The two principal routes cross India from west to east, both starting from Karachi, which is, from a flying point of view, the gate of India. The northern route proceeds to Nazaribad, thence striking north-east to Delhi, and so to Calcutta via Cawnpore, Allahabad and Gya. On this routethere are a number of other aerodromes which offer facilities in case of emergency. The more southerly and direct route,though at present not quite so well served with intermediate '."- stopping places, is that via Bombay, our first stage fromKarachi being Ahmadabad, whence the course more or less follows the Bombay, Baroda and Central India Railway to - Kalyan (the aerodrome for Bombay). The route on to Cal-."'•'• cutta is almost due east, passing through Nagpur. Other aerodromes are under construction at Raipur and Jhar- suguda. In connection with the Egypt-India route theIndian Post Office has inaugurated a mail service between Bombay and Karachi which will accelerate the delivery of , letters in the Provinces of Sindh and Baluchistan. Cairo to Cape Town The stepping-stones of this great all-red route have beenactually placed, and pioneer machines are now on the way. It will be realised that to have established a chain of aerodromes through the length of the continent of Africa, a distance by existing methods of travel of 6,223 miles, to •'.". have successfully contended with the geographical and physical difficulties, is no small achievement.From Cairo the course of the Nile is followed to Wadi Haifa, and thence across the desert to Sherick, from whichplace the Nile is once more the airman's guide to Khartoum. Across the desert areas from Cairo to Khartoum natural, aerodromes, requiring little improvement, are readily avail- able. The southern end of this zone marks the terminusof the Egyptian-Soudan railways at Senaar. With the Sudd districts of the White Nile, an area of some 35,000 square• • miles of swamp, and the fores s of the Southern Soudan be- tween Khartoum and Mongalla, the difficulties of aerodromeconstruction are very materially increased. Between Mongalla and Jinja, which it is interesting to noteis 2,132 ft. above sea-level, on the northern shore of Lake Victoria, an emergency landing-ground has been establishedat Nimule on the southern boundary of the Soudan. From Jinja, Lake Victoria is skirted on the east shore,and the next stopping-place is Kisumu, on the north-eastern corner of the lake—an important point, connecting as itdoes with the East African railway to Nairobi and Mombasa. The stage Kisumu to Mwanza takes us to the southerlyend of Lake Victoria, there being an intermediate landing- ground at Shirati. Though all this section of country is farfrom easy, greater troubles lie ahead. From Lake Victoria to Abercorn in Northern Rhodesia via Tabora (the late capitalof German East Africa), is a difficult piece of country. A large stretch of Central African forest is unpleasant to contem-plate as a possible enforced stopping-place, although, owing to the energy of our survey parties and the goodwill of thelocal authorities, even here emergency grounds have been made available at Shinyanza and Zimba. From Abercorn there is a further difficult stretch to BrokenHill, and an emergency ground has been prepared at N'dola. The journey from Abercorn to N'dola is 341 miles. This isthe longest stage without a prepared emergency ground on the entire route, but the intermediate country has been FEBRUARY 5, 1920 surveyed, and more than one place reported on as offering landing facilities in the event of necessity. From N'dola, to Broken Hill and onwards to Pretoria via Livingstone Bulawayo and Palapwe (where we have benefitted so much from the assistance of Chief Khama), the route roughly follows the railway, and although the dense forest country in the neighbourhood of Livingstone naturally presents difficulties, the journey, in view of the many facilities which are now within reach of every stopping-place, is not a bad one. The next aerodrome is at Johannesburg, which lies 6,000 ft. above sea level, the greatest elevation on the route. From here there is a gradual falling in the elevation of the aero- dromes to Cape Town. Bloemfontein, Victoria West and Beaufort West all have aerodromes on the route, and in view of the difficulty of the Zwarte-Bergen range, which it is necessary to cross before reaching Cape Town, an emergency landing-ground has been established at Touws River. This has been found necessary because the top of the mountain range referred to—which will necessitate a climb of well over 7,000 ft.—is often covered with low clouds, rendering the actual approach to Cape Town somewhat dangerous. Generally speaking, the latter stages of the journey across the Transvaal and Cape Colony have not presented anything like the difficulties encountered further north, the more open nature of the country lending itself better to the require- ments of the aviator, although frequently the veldt country with its rocky kopjes has made the selection of landing- grounds difficult. In considering the whole route, it is interesting to record that there are no less than 43 prepared aerodromes giving 42 stages of an average length of just over 124 miles each. Of the 43 aerodromes, 24 are at present organised as petrol and oil stations, giving an average journey of 226 miles between re-fuelling bases. The total distance to be covered is approximately 5,206 miles. In Africa special consideration has been given to the inauguration of a mail and passenger service from Cairo along the course of the Nile to Khartoum, and on to Kisumu on Lake Victoria. Under present conditions certain stages of this journey have to be conducted by carriers, a method both slow and expensive. It appears that here, at any rate, the most economic mode of travelling would be by air, par- ticularly as it seems doubtful whether a Cape to Cairo railway would pay over this section of its line. India to Australia From Calcutta the route to Australia as flown by Sir Ross Smith is via Akyab to Rangoon, and thence, after skirting the coast of Burma for about 100 miles, it strikes across country to Bangkok. Here some hazardous frying over a very mountainous district is involved. The next stage from Bangkok necessitates a journey down the Gulf of Siam to Singapdre. Here again geographical conditions are difficult, the ground being extremely precipitous. Leaving Singapore, flight is continued to Kalidjati in Java, and on via Surabaya and Bima to Atamboea in Dutch Timor, which is within 450 miles of Port Darwin. All the latter stages of this journey involve very material difficulties, as it is a question of flying over either inhospitable islands, from the point of view of possible landings, or over the sea. The alternatives to this route are :—(1) by skirting the western coasts of Burma and the Malay Peninsula rather than crossing the m ountains to Bangkok. Several possible landing- grounds have been reported in this area as the result of a survey recently undertaken by Gen. A. E. Borton ; and (2) an alternative which has been favourably reported on by Gen. Borton, the use of a flying-boat from Calcutta via Akyab, Rangoon, Mergui, Penang, Singapore, Muntok (Banka), Batavia, Surabaya (Java), Bima, KeopangBay (Timor) and so to Port Darwin. If the latter method be adopted, undoubtedly many of the geographical disadvantages and difficulties which a land machine suffers would disappear, as sheltered harbours suitable for flying-boats exist. Should it prove desirable to establish an All-Red route, the journey from Singapore to Australia may, perhaps, at some future date be broken at Christmas Island, south of Java, 810 statute miles from Singapore, and 949 miles from the coast of Australia. Incidentally, I hope that some day there will be a link between *this route and one to China. . In Australia one of the chief disadvantages of the present transport system is the lack of a trans-continental railway between the populous districts in the south and the sparsely populated country of the north. A trans-eontinental arr route such as has been opened up from Port Darwin to Melbourne, with some 11 aerodromes either constructed or in course of construction, may well prove the most economical
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