FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1930
UNTITLED0 - 1140.PDF
FLIGHT, SEPTEMBER 26, 1930 AIR TRANSPORT THE LONDON-CAPE TOWN AIR SERVICE First Section to Open Next January ON September 22, Lieut-Col. J. Barrett-Lennard, adirector of Imperial Airways, arrived at Southampton,in the Union Castle liner Armadale Castle, from South Africa, where he has concluded the final arrangements for the Croydon-Cape Town air mail service. He stated that the first section of the route, from Croydon to Kisumu, Lake Victoria, would be opened next January, while it is hoped to open the second section to the Cape the following April, when the full service will occupy 11 days—later this time will be reduced to nine days. Arrangements for the full service have already been made, including the provision of rest and refreshment-house facilities along the route where required. The daily schedules, intermediate halts, and types of aircraft have all been decided upon. The route is almost identical to the one suggested at the outset, viz., following the course of the Nile from Cairo, then passing through Uganda, Tanganyika, and Rhodesia, the total distance to the Cape being about 5,750 miles. The stages and calling places over the whole African route will be :—CAIRO, Assiut, Luxor, Aswan, Wady Haifa, Karima, Khartoum, Kosti, Malakal, Shambe, Juba, Butiaba, Port Bell, Kisumu, Nairobi, Moshi, Dodoma, Mbeya, Mpika, ! Broken Hill, Salisbury, Buluwayo, Pietersburg, Johannes- burg, Kimberley, Victoria West, CAPE TOWN. The service will be once a week, in each direction at the start, and the fare for the entire journey to or from Croydon (roughly 6,000 miles) will be £'125, including hotels, etc Connection with the London-India service will be made at Cairo. The longest stage will not exceed eight hours' dura- tion. It is hoped, eventually, to introduce night flying over certain sections of the route, and thus speed up the time for the complete journey. As regards the machines to be employed, from Croydon to Salonica, the new Handley-Page 40-seaters will be used, while the Mediteranean crossing, to Alexandria, will be made in four-engined flying boats. Armstrong-Whitworth " Argosies " will take over the section between Alexandria and Khartoum, then Short " Calcutta " flying-boats, following the Nile and Lakes, will be used. The remaining portion of the route will be served by D.H. " Hercules " machines. All machines, it should be noted, are multi-engined. A full scheme for the development of the meteorological service along the route has been laid down, and much has already been done in this direction, although at first it is possible that complete arrangements may be unfinished. It is reported that a temporary agreement, subject to future Egyptian legislation, has been reached by the Egyptian Government and the Imperial Airways with regard to the Cape to Cairo air service. It was agreed that British air law would be observed in such matters as licensing pilots, and the testing and inspection of machines for this R101 HAS TWO REVERSIBLE ENGINES IT is very gratifying to learn that the attempts to reversethe Beardmore compression-ignition engine have provedso successful that it has been decided to instal two reversible engines in R 101. Both the forward wing engines will be able to reverse. The new engine is already in place in the port forward power egg, and the similar starboard engine is to be installed during this week. Driving astern is a very rare manoeuvre, and practically is only used during mooring operations in case the ship should show a tendency to overshoot the mast. When R 100 moored on her return from Canada there was no necessity to reverse any of the Condors, two of which are fitted with reversing gear. Still, when a drive astern is needed, it is needed very badly, for damage to the hull through overshooting the tower, such as once befell R 36, must not be risked. That was the reason why R 101 has hitherto had to reserve one engine, repre- senting 20 per cent, of her total power, for driving astern. For the future she will be able to use all five engines for driving ahead, and any experimental feature in the device for reversing the camshaft will be obviated by having two reversible engines. The new bay and new gas bag have been inserted in R 101, aft of the passenger coach, and various impedimenta which were found unnecessary for operating the airship, such as the servo motor for working the control surfaces, have been removed. The unnecessary amount of clearance between the gas bags and the frame of the hull has been abolished by letting out the wire net which surrounds each bag. The "lift and power of R 101 have now been very considerably increased. A new cover has been made and put in place, and has been doped after fitting instead of before fitting. For one of the main engines a Beardmore heavy-oil starting engine has been fitted. If the weather is favourable, R 101 may be brought out of her shed about the end of this week. The next step will be a trial flight over the British Isles, and then, if all goes well, a date will be fixed for the departure for Ismailia and Karachi. Lord Thomson, Air Minister, proposes to make the journey in the airship, and it he is able to do so he will have much of interest to tell the Imperial Conference. Barring the flight of one Zeppelin from Bulgaria to Central Africa during the war, and the recent flight of the civil " Graf Zeppelin " to Brazil, this flight of R 101 will be the first flight of a rigid airship into tropical climes. It will be an immensely interesting experi- ment, and should teach lessons of the utmost value. Croydon-Liverpool Service Discontinued THE experimental air service between Croydon, Bir- mingham, Manchester and Liverpool was discontinued, for the winter, on September 20. On the whole the service, which started last June, with the financial assistance of the three cities served, may be considered to have been successful, for only one journey was not completed. It is hoped that the service will be resumed next summer, and it is possible that the introduction of night flying will enable the service to be run for a longer period. Sir Samuel Hoare and Air Communications ON September 18, Sir Samuel Hoare delivered an address on " Air Communications," at the Bonar Law College, Ashridge, in which'he made a number of interesting o&servi- tions, especially as regards the attitude of the o.try• *«" Air Mails. Unfortunately, pressure on our space this wee prevents our dealing with this address, but we hope to ao so next week. es A Berlin-Nankin Air Service PROPOSALS have been made to aeroplane service between Berlin and Nankin, it is April, with 15-passenger machines and following Siberian Railway. Negotiations are proceeding Soviet Government in this connection. --„,»• . :stablish a bi-weekly Trans- thethe 1076
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
