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Aviation History
1928
1928 - 0397.PDF
MAY 17, 1928 •of £4,019 175. 10rf. It was decided not to declare a dividendwith this, but to place the sum to general reserve account, thus increasing the reserve capital to /7.380 10s. 5rf. Thereds nothing grasping about the sporting enthusiasts who rule the fortunes of Oantas. The Larkin Aircraft Supply Co., Ltd. Melbourne Aerodrome, off Dudley Street, Melbourne The Larkin firm came into existence soon after the Armistice, was best known in its early days as the Australian agents •for Sopwith aircraft. The firm was once granted contracts for mail services Adelaide-Sydney and Sydney-Brisbane, but for various reasons the second of these services never came into being. Such an air line would be in direct competition with a, railway, and therefore its prospects were not very brilliant. After various negotiations and long delays, the" Adelaide- Sydney line was opened in June, 1924. This was 790 miles in length. The very hilly country from Sydney as far as Cootamundra with few landing grounds and bad visibility in winter proved unsuitable for an air line, while a railway m on subsidised service and5145,846 miles on private flights.It has carried 303,975 paying passengers, 30,135 letters, and 944 lb. of freight. The figures for letters and freight show thecompetition of the railways, which, though slower than the airway, still are available ; whereas the two older com-panies have things all their own way. In the'matter of pas- sengers, however, the Larkin firm, though flying over lessunsophisticated country, has been most successful in attract- ing patronage. It has no serious accidents to report. The Australian Aero Club and Private Flying THE Australian Aero Club is afnliated^to the Royal Aero Club.It functions mainly through branches in the various States, and these branches run most of the light aeroplane_clubs andflying schools. There are sections of the A.A.C. and light aeroplane clubs at Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, and Tas-mania. A branch of the Victorian section exists at Geelong. Flying schools at Brisbane and Longreach are a branch ofOantas activities, while the school at Perth likewise is managed by West Australian Airways. At Broken Hill a Sir.Charles Wake-fleld's Gift : The Avro "Cirrus-Avian " presented by Sir Charles tothe Federal Govern- ment was handedover by Mr. Bruce to the AustralianAero Club;(N.S.W. Section) onMarch 31 at Mascot aerodrome.In the photograph the machine is seenjust after being erected at theLarkin Works, Melbourne. provided quite satisfactory communications between those two points. Accordingly the service was re-organised in July, 1925. The line Adelaide-Cootamundra is a useful one, as it short circuits the railway lines, which more or less follow the coast. It was retained, with one service weekly in each direction. The length of the route is 578 miles. In addition to this main line two branch lines were added, Mildura to Broken Hill, and Hay to Melbourne, each with two services weekly in each direction. Mildura-Broken Hill is 189 miles in length, and Hay-Melbourne is 233 miles. The routes run : (a) Adelaide, Swan Reach, Renmark, Mildura, Euston, Balranald, Hay, Carrathoof, Narrandera, Cootamundra. (b) Mildura, Tartna, Broken Hill, (c) Hay, Rochester, Echuca, Deniliquin, Melbourne. Machines start from Adelaide every Tuesday and from Cootamundra every Thursday. On Tuesday and Friday machines start from Broken Hill to meet the main line machines, and start back on Thursdays and Sundays. Machines leave Melbourne for Hay on Tuesdays and Thurs- days to connect with the machines on the main line, while on the same days machines leave Hay for Melbourne. Thus the three capital cities, Adelaide, Melbourne, and Sydney, are brought much nearer-to each other by aeroplane than when the only connection was by rail. Broken Hill is an important mining centre, one of the largest inland towns in Australia. It has a very round-about rail connection with Adelaide, but no direct communications with either Melbourne, or its own capital, Sydney—for it is •situated in New South Wales, though in point of distance it is much nearer to Adelaide. The Melbourne-Hay air line if. not only useful at the present time, but it also points the way to a further line from Hay to Charleville, which would bring Melbourne into direct air connection with Camooweal and ultimately with Darwin. The Larkin fleet consists of ten aeroplanes, viz., three AnecIII monoplanes, with Rolls-Royce " Eagle VIII " engines, three D H. 50A.'s with Pumas, and four Sopwith machines,an " Antelope," a "Gnu," a " Wallaby," and a " Dove." The service has been most efficiently conducted since it really got into its stride. It has flown 473,577 machine miles flying school has recently been started by Wings, Ltd., with an equipment of two Genet-Avians. The other schools and clubs are equipped with Cirrus-Moths. From the Armistice until 1922 the Australian Aero Club played a prominent part in the agitation for Government control of civil flying. When the " slump " years came, it, like other flying activities, grew considerably less active. As the success of the two older air lines gradually came'to be realised in the big towns, interest in flying began to revive, and at that very appropriate moment Sir Alan Cobham made his great flight to Australia and back. A flying " boom '' followed, and resulted in the revival of Aero Club activities in the shape of the formation of light aeroplane clubs and flying schools. The movement has spread rapidly and is obviously full of life and vigour. The light aeroplane opens up a new life to men in the out- back. Earlier passages of this article^have endeavoured to show how very lonely life must be on some of the large stations far away from any rail. The airways and the light aeroplane movement are gradually abolishing this solitude, and bringing the squatters and station owners and managers into touch with each other and with the outside world. The two movements do not clash. There is plenty of room for both, and there is still a vast amount of ground to be covered by the aeroplane, which only the aeroplane can cover. Aus- tralia, in fact, offers a market scarcely, if at all, less wide than Great Britain to the makers of these handy little machines. The " Moth," the " Avian," and the " Widgeon " have already made their mark out there. The New Programme—Circling Australia by Air During the last Imperial Conference, Mr. Bruce, the Premier of Australia, was manifestly impressed by what he saw of aircraft and flying in Great Britain. He had already been for a trip in a Oantas machine, and had expressed his appreciation of the work which the air line was doing in Queensland. The Governor-General, H. E. Lord Stonehaven, is an ex-officer of the Royal Air Force, and frequently travels by air across Australia. A D.H.50 belonging to the Royal Australian Air Force was put at His Excellency's disposal for his journeys. - - - ,- • s ' • 361
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