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Aviation History
1920
1920 - 0567.PDF
MAY «7, 1920 "CAIRO-CAPE PILOTS HONOURED ON Tuesday of last week a banquet was given by the Anglo-African community at the Savoy Hotel in honour of Col. Sir H. A. van Ryneveld, D.S.O., M.C., and Flight-Lieut. SirC. J. Q. Brand, D.S.O., D.F.C., M.C., the two South African- born pilots, who recently accomplished the feat of flyingfrom Brooklands to Wynberg (Cape Town), starting on February 4 and completing the journey on March 20. Theactual flying time was 109 hours, and three machines were used, named " Silver Queen I," " Silver Queen II " and" Voortrekker," the latter one taking up the running after the first two had crashed. The Secretary of State for War andfor the Air, Mr. Winston Churchill, occupied the chair in honour of the guests, and amongst those present were LordMorris, Sir Edgar Bowring (High Commissioner of New- foundland), Sir Lionel Phillips, Mr. R. A. Blankenberg(Acting High Commissioner for South Africa) and Mrs. Blankenberg, Col. L. S. Amery (Under-Secretary of State forthe Colonies) and Mrs. Amery, Sir Owen Philipps, M.P., Sir Roderick Jones, Capt. P. D. Ackland (general manager ofAviation Department, Vickers, Ltd.), Dr. Chalmers Mitchell (who accompanied The Times flight expedition on the sameairway), Maj. Ewart Grogan (who walked from Cape Town to Cairo 20 years ago), Capt. S. Cockerell, and Capt. F. C.Broome. Mr. Churchill, in proposing " Our Distinguished Guests,"said, they were met to welcome with most sincere feelings of admiration and enthusiasm the heroes of one of the three orfour great and memorable exploits of aviation. Both their guests had played a fine part in the War. They fought inthe most dangerous branches of the aviation service. Sir H. van Ryneveld commanded an aviation wing, havingworked his way up from rank to rank, and Sir C. Brand had the distinction of clawing down a German bombing-machineby night-flying over London. Anyone who had flown to any considerable extent knew how numerous were the dangerswhich at every step lay in wait for the aviator. When they considered the enormous waste of country upon which nolanding -would be practicable if any failure occurred to the engine, the vast expanse of desert before the Soudan wasreached, the enormous areas of the most dreary spaces on the face of the earth—when they contemplated thes angersthey would know how to appreciate the extraordinary risks and hazards which these two officers encountered and success-fully overcame. Their achievements brought out great qualities of stubbornness and determination. In the endthey achieved what they had set out to do. They arrived at Cape Town, and they had a right to claim to be the pioneersof that great future aerial route. This flight had drawn South Africa much closer to the Mother Country. It mightbe that a good many years would pass before the Cairo-to- the-Cape route—which was so dear to the imagination ofthat great man, Cecil Rhodes—became a safe, sure, regular highway for aircraft, but that it would so become they couldhave no possible doubt, and the more it was used and the longer it was used the greater would be the debt of gratitudeto the men who showed the way. But quite apart from tha% the fact that we felt that in-this flight we had a new tie anda new bond associating the British Isles with the Union of South Africa was to him very important and very great.That that flight should have been accomplished by an aviator who belonged to the Dutch race in South Africa, and whohad fought with so much courage in the great War, accepting process which had been forwarded by aviation was to hismind specially satisfactory. The years which lay before the British Empire were nodoubt full of anxiety and difficulty, but he spoke with feelings of assured confidence when he told them that he believedwe were entering upon the most brilliant period that we had ever seen in our long and varied history. We had notyet fully realised the greatness of the victory that had been gained, or the immensity of the consequences which wouldflow from the practical union of the whole British Empire in the field against a common enemy and in the cause of justice.Those consequences would roll forward, and he saw no reason why we should not count An more than one generation inwhich the British name and the British Empire would be regarded as the leading moral and physical factor in tne achievement of their two guests in accomplishing this mostdangerous exploit and joining together by a new method the Union of South Africa and the British Isles, had played anoteworthy and a distinguished part. Col. Sir H. A. van Ryneveld, in responding, once againexpressed their great obligation and appreciation of the assistance rendered by the South African Government andthe R.A.F. during the flight. He expressed great gratifica- tion in seeing Dr. Chalmers Mitchell and Capt. Cockerelland Capt. Broome present, as they really po^ssed a record in having covered the greatest distance on the way to CapeTown with a single machine. They had not had the advantage of being able to obtain relays of machines, withoutwhich it would have been impossible for themselves to have got through. Flight-Lieut. Sir C. Brand also briefly replied.Col. L. S. Amery, M.P., in proposing "South Africa," was eloquent with a paean of praise for that fascinatingcountry, and spoke of the magnetic attraction which South Africa seemed to have for all who had once been there. Hewas very happy in some of his reminiscences of his past experiences in that country, especially in association withthe present Secretary of State for Air, during their work through the Boer War, whereby Mr. Churchill, by reason ofthat extraordinary energy and alertness which he possessed, prompting him to be first in whatever movement he mightbe concerned, was landed into being captured by Gen. Botha and held a prisoner. Sir Lionel Phillips responded.Sir Owen Philipps proposed " Trans-African Flight," and said he was one of the great believers in the future of postaland other services by the air across the great African con- tinent. He thought we all owed a great debt of gratitudeto Dr. Chalmers Mitchell for what he had attempted, and also to Lord Northcliffe for what he did years before the War tohelp on the practical work in aviation. It was these flights, whether successful or otherwise, which were doing great workin helping on to the time when everyone would be able to travel long distances by air, with absolute safety and greaterspeed than by mail steamer or express train. Dr. Mitchell, in responding, said there was no one inthat room who congratulated their guests more heartily than he did, because from personal experience he knew thedifficulties which they had overcome in their great adventure. When by a combination of three of the greatest forces inthe world—the energy and vision of the Air Ministry, the enterprise of the Press, and, in particular, of his very greatfriend, Lord Northcliffe, and Hhe enterprise and capacity of the great manufacturing firms, the makers of enginesand aeroplanes—the great flight in which he took part was started, he was optimistic in spirit but very doubtful asto the possibility "of getting through. He had come back a convinced believer in the future of flying and in the prac-tical future of flying across Africa. He believed the future of flying across Africa to be much nearer than the chairmanhad suggested in his speech. He believed so because of certain practical urgencies which were impressed upon himwhile he was in Africa. The problems of our fellow-citizens in different parts of the Empire could be dealt with more -expeditiously and satisfactorily by the development of the :aeroplane as a swift and comfortable means of travel for our colonial and home statesmen. In the prosecution olthe federation of the Empire annual _or more frequent least every two years. At present leave was reckoned asso many months plus the time it took to get from the colony to London and "back, and it meant that something like threemonths every two years was wasted. If that were put into practical figures it meant that something like 12 p^rcent, of the salaries of important colonial officials was thrown ' " • <•—- ™— ^— ..,„„ „ ™™_ ^teS^^f^^*^ of Chambersof Commerce came to see him and impressed upon him the ^ ^ communication. The aeroplane fe y^ ^^ ^ ^ rf sdentlfic explorationas was shown by the discovery of great nOTth of KhartouZ. With regaTd to the^ ^ & ^ important need for iurther engine development. • , J ' f- "•'••^
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