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Aviation History
1928
1928 - 1062.PDF
NOVEMBER 15, 1928 southwards, Sikasso and Buake (Bonake), both in French Senegambia, were made on September 17. The next stage, on September 18, brought the airmen once again to the coast, at Bingerville (French Ivory Coast), where a stop for a few days was made to carry out minor repairs and adjustments. Off again on September 21, Accra •on the Gold Coast was the next stop, where a broken radiator had to be repaired, then, still following the coast, Lagos on September 22, and Duala (Cameroons) on September 23. Here bad weather held up the airmen, and it was not until September 27 that they arrived at Port Gentil, in spite of it. On September 29, a flight of nearly 200 miles over sea was made to the Island of St. Thomas, where the airmen were given a very enthusiastic reception and many " festivals " in their honour. They left again, amidst a rousing send-off on October 2, and returned to Port Gentil, continuing the same day on to Point Noir. On reaching Loanda (Angola), on October 3, the second section of their journey was completed, and some 6,500 miles accomplished. The third and last section was, perhaps, the most difficult of all, for it necessitated crossing Central Africa from west to east coast, over certain portions of which aircraft had not hitherto flown. Before actually leaving the coast the airmen proceeded to Benguella on October 9, and then turned inland on October 11 after a short hold-up owing to minor engine trouble. Weather was very unfavourable, but they arrived safely at Silva Porto, on the Benguella railway. The next stage was to Kozombo, which was accomplished on October 13-16, an intermediate stop being made half-way at Vila Luso. Continuing on October 16, they flew to Elizabethville, Broken Hill, and Zumbo, but were unable to reach Tete the same day as originally intended. They arrived at Tete the following day, and on October 19, set out for Beira. One of the pilots, Capt. Viegas, had to land at Chemba (Zambesia) en route, but continued his journey to Beira next day. Quilimane was reached on October 22, and later the airmen returned to Beira, where minor repairs were effected. On October 25 and 26 the concluding stages of the flight were accomplished—to Inhambane and Lourenco Marques. Thus in seven weeks and three days they had covered a distance of about 9,950 miles, and had visited the principal Portuguese African Colonies. The log of the flight from start to finish, with approximate distances between stages, is as follows :— Sept. 5 Lisbon (Amadora)—Casablanca—Agadir6 Agadir—Cape Juby.. 7 Cape luby—Port Etienne 8 Port Etiehpe—St. Louis .. 9 St. Louis—Bulama 14 Bulama—Tomba Counda15-16 Tomba Counda—Kayes—Bammako 17 Bammako—Sikasso—Buake Buake—Bingerville Bingerv ille —Accra Accra—Lagos Lagos—Duala Duala—Port Gentil Port Gentil—St. Thomas 1920 2223 28 3(1 Oct. 2 3 9 11 13 16 17 19 22 24 25 26 St. Thomas—Port Gentil—Point Noir Point Noir—Loanda Loanda—Benguela Benguela—Silva Porto Silva Porto—Vila Lyso Vila Lyso—Elizabethville—Broken Hill—Zumbo Zumbo—Tete Tete—Beira (No. 2 machine landed at Chamba, arrived at Beira on October 20.) Beira—Quilimane Quilimane—Beira Beira—Inhambane Inhambane—Lourenco Marques . . Flying Time Miles 826- 298 646- 404354 354 298 503- 199 298 301 497 404 168 590- 354 310- 310 416 932 155 279 248 248 279 273 5 5 5 5 •7 •7 •6 •5 •5 •6 •4 Hr. 5 2 6 4 4 4 3 5 2 3 3 5 4 2 6 4 2 <j 4 7 1 3 2 2 3 3 Min 20 30 20 20 20 20 15 15 8 15 14 20 20 20 30 7 40 50 30 0 20 20 20 50 10 40 Total . . 9,950 100 34 <•> AIR MINISTER'S SPEECH AT GUILDHALL BANQUET SIR SAMUEL HO ARE, in reply to the toast of " Imperial Forces " at the Guildhall Banquet on November 9, said that it was the first occasion upon which a representative of the Royal Air Force had had the privilege of responding to a toast that included the Army and the Navy. Three years had passed since he last had the chance of speaking of the Ro3'al Air Force at a Guildhall Banquet—three years of constant change and, he believed, of steady progress. He took as illustrations the events of the last few months. A week ago, a young Flight-Lieutenant of the Royal Air Force established a British record, and in so doing proved himself to be the fastest flyer in the world. What better evidence could he give of the skill and dash of Air Force pilots, excellence of British construction, and progress in increasing the performance and at the same time diminishing the weight of engine and machine ? Through no fault of his own Flight-Lieut. Greig, although he exceeded the speed of any other flight, missed by a fraction of a second the necessary margin to constitute a technical world record. They wished him the best of luck if and when in due course he made another attempt, and if he knew anything of the determina- tion of the Royal Air Force to achieve any task that they have undertaken, he would certainly succeed. The Air Route to India.—Sir Samuel then took a second illustration drawn from a different field of activities. Two years ago they started upon the organisation of a civil flying route between England and India. They believed that if the British Empire was to obtain advantages from aviation co.mmensurate with the heavy expenditure that is involved in air defence, the aeroplane and the airship must be used for speeding up Imperial communications, and that the most useful line of advance in achieving this end was an air route to the Far East. He had hoped that months ago a weekly service between London and Karachi, taking five or six days, would be in operation. Unfortunately, international diffi- culties stood in the way. He was glad to be able to make the first official announcement that those difficulties are finally removed, and that the service would start in the early spring. He took that opportunity of saying how glad he was to have obtained the co-operation of our Italian friends and comrades for the European section of the route, and how certain he <s> <$> Dutch East Indies Air Mail THE fifth Fokker monoplane (Armstrong Siddeley " i) hih l fl f d was that the agreement reached between ourselves and Persia would be of great advantage to our respective countries. It was satisfactory to note that this conspicuous develop- ment in civil aviation took place at a time when the Imperial Airways Company had, by paying its first dividend, made a record amongst the principal flying companies of the world. The Air Defence of London.—He took the third illustration of the progress that they had been making. Three months ago the most extensive air exercises took place over London that have been attempted by any country since the war. They were not held for the purpose of air propaganda. The exercises were held for one object, to test the efficiency of the units engaged in them. He was glad to say that the results were most satisfactory, and that in particular the two London Auxiliary Squadrons in which the City and County of London have taken so close an interest, more than justified the high hopes that had been placed upon them when formed three years ago. Altogether 25,000 hours were flown during the exercises both by day and night, with an almost complete lack of engine failures, no injury to a pilot and a serviceability of machines of practically a hundred per cent. Those facts were sufficient to show that the Air Force with the most efficient and patriotic support of the Territorial Searchlight Units and the Observer Corps, was making conspicuous progress with the very formidable task of the air defence of London. He did not, however, wish to end upon what can be even remotely considered a warlike note. Urgent though he believed to be the defence of London, he was none the less certain that the forces of peace, and not the forces of war were gaining strength in the world. We were not making these defence preparations because we believe a war to be likely. We were making them simply, and only because a great country like ours could not live on sufference and must insure against risks that, however, remote, were pregnant with disaster. These modest preparations of defence must, therefore, steadily proceed. They need not, however, distract minds from the need of agreement between the great powers of Europe upon the question of air armaments. We did not want a competition of armaments in the air. Batavia as one of the fleet inaugurating the Dutch air mail line, started on its return flight on November 7. It landed b 9 d th" Lynx " engines) which recently flew from Amsterdam to at Rangoon for petrol on November 9 and then reached AkyaD 984
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