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Aviation History
1930
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FLIGHT, AUGUST 29, 1930 AIR TRANSPORT THE STATE OF AIR TRANSPORT IN THE BRITISH EMPIRE IN the British Empire air transport has reached a veryinteresting stage. It has gone ahead at an amazingpace in the last year, and it show signs of even more remarkable acceleration in the future." We take this remark from one of the introductory articles in the second volume of the " Air Annual of the British Empire " (Gale and Polden, Ltd.). Squadron-Leader Burge, the editor, has had a happy task in recording progress as well as promise, and he has risen to the occasion and produced a volume quite as attractive as his initial effort last year, full of interesting and encouraging facts, readable articles, and illustrations which really illustrate —while many of them are very charming pictures. The outstanding feature in the volume is the record of air transport in the British Empire, and, with full acknowledg- ments, we give here a summary of the present very satis- factory position. In some cases, developments have taken place since the volume went to press, and so far as our informa- tion goes we have brought the subject up to date. In pride of alphabetic place, Australia (including New Guinea) comes first. At the time when the " Air Annual " went to press, the air route mileage in Australia and New Guinea was 6,937 miles. Since then (on June 9) the subsidy granted to the Larkin company for the route Adelaide-Coota- mundra, with branches to Melbourne and Broken Hill, has been terminated, which reduces the total by 1,000 miles. On the other hand, Australian National Airways, Ltd., i.e., Kingsford-Smith and Ulm, which on January 1 opened an unsubsidised non-stop service daily each way between Sydney and Brisbane, and ran it with great success, has also opened a service between Sydney and Melbourne, which includes night flying. The Minister for Defence, Mr. A. E. Green, on June 10, stated in Parliament that " Civil aviation has already progressed to a stage which makes it no longer necessary to provide subsidies to enable properly-managed and capitalised organisations to operate aerial services successfully between large and important centres of population." The subsidies of the existing mail contractors are being reduced as new contracts are granted, a process which is doubtless distasteful to the contractors, but which shows the healthy progress of air transport in Australia. The new rates per mile flown will be, for West Australian Airways, Ltd., on its Perth-Derby service, 2/7 reducing in the third year to 2/5; andforQ.A.N.T.A.S., 2/9 reducing in the third yekv to 2/7. The basis of payment to W.A.A. on the Perth-Adelaide service is 12/8 per 1b. of mail with a minimum as for 600 lb. per trip. Up to the end of last year some 171 landing grounds had been acquired or leased by the Government and prepared for civil flying, while there were 28 public licensed aerodromes. Four flying companies are at work without subsidies in iNew Guinea, of which Guinea Airways, Ltd., is the oldest, and is the air mail contractor. They convey stores up to the goldfields at a great saving of time and money. An opinion is quoted in the " Air Annual " to the effect'that probably no other air service in the world is of such vital necessity to the districts served or which transports freight daily in suchJll! ge quantities. In Canada last year there were 15 regular air mail servicesat work, some working all the year round, some only in summer and some only in winter. Of 2,344 scheduled trips,2,162 were completed; 430,636 lb. of mail were carried; and 490,640 miles flown. The greatest volume of flyingwas done by companies with a fixed base, but operating in all directions, on photography, taxi services, instruction,forest and fishery patrols, etc. There were 73 such operators at work, of which 16 conducted flying schools. Instructionwas given to 560 pupils. The total aircraft mileage was 6,284,079, the number of passengers (paying and non-paying,but not including club pupils) was 104,291. The most striking air line in Canada is that which runsfrom Winnipeg to Regina, and there branches into two for Edmonton and Calgary. Night flying has been introducedon the branch Regina-Calgary, and this was the first air route in the Empire to use night flying regularly. The routebetween Calgary and Winnipeg is provided with 48 acetylene range beacons and 16 revolving electric beacons. It isexpected that by the end of this year there will be over 1,000 miles developed for night flying. This service isintended as one step towards the ultimate development of a through service by air from the Atlantic (say, from FartherPoint) to Vancouver. Canada still chiefly uses the aeroplane for patrol and survey, but her regular air services are nowcoming ahead very fast. None of them are subsidised, but mail contracts are a great help to the companies whichreceive them. In India there is at present a State airway betweenKarachi and Delhi, one weekly each way. By the end of the present year it is hoped to extend the service to Calcutta,while progress will be made in preparing the Calcutta- Rangoon route. The Karachi-Calcutta route will be oneof the most important airways in the world, quite apart from its share in forwarding the Australian mails. Itstotal length will be 1,569 miles, and it will run from Delhi through Cawnpore, Allahabad, Gaya, and Asansol to Calcutta.The Calcutta aerodrome at Dum Dum has, after two years' work, been made fit for use all through the year. Similarwork is to be undertaken at Juhu aerodrome, near Bom- bay. The Imperial Airways service from Croydon to Karachicontinues to show great efficiency, but its full utility will not be apparent until the air extension to Calcutta comesinto being. In South Africa the charge of civil flying has beenentrusted to the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs, who has appointed a Civil Air Board. The only civil air lineis from Capetown to Port Elizabeth, whence branches run to Durban and Johannesburg. The contracting company.Union Airways, Ltd., of which the moving figure is Maj. A. M. Miller, receives a subsidy of £8,000 per annum for threeyears. Flying only started last August, and has been carried out with great success. It is expected that whenthe Cairo-Capetown line of Imperial Airways, Ltd., comes into being, the whole flying movem ent in South Africa 'willreceive a great impetus. s«a and Air Co-operation ACCORDING to The Times Trade Supplement of August 16,Jwo important shipping lines, the White Star and the Cunard, n;ive agreed to enter into co-operation with Imperial Air-ways for the operation of a combined sea and air transport oi goods from America to India. The goods will be trans- ported from places in America and Canada to the Americanports by air, sent by fast liners to Southampton, transferred «> trains and sent to Waterloo, where they will be collected- Imperial Airways and transported to Karachi by air. In favourable cases it is thought that the time may be reduced to a fortnight. The extra charge will be 2s. 6d. per kg. Aviation in Western Canada AVIATION is rapidly advancing ; ; Western Canada and is a prime factor in Western progress, said Maj.-Gen. J. H. MacBrien, president of the Aviation League of Canada, on his return from a solo flight to Vancouver and back, in the course of which he visited practically every city west of Ottawa. fl77 ss...
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