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Aviation History
1931
1931 - 0035.PDF
FLIGHT, JANUARY 9. 1931 internal routes from Batavia as far as Medan and Surabaya.They entered into an agreement with K.L.M. whereby the latter would work the link between there and Holland.In the present article I will confine my remarks to this K.L.M. link, but will discuss the K.N.l.L.M. activities in alater article. Mr. l'lesman does not claim that a regular service has beenpermanently established yet. A considerable number of very successful flights have been made, and they are atpresent operating at fortnightly intervals. These experiments may be divided into three periodscovered respectively by the years 1928, 1929, and 1930. Two Dutch flights had taken place in 1927, but neither ofthese were worked by the K.L.M. In September of 1928, four Fokker F Vllb three-enginedmachines left Schiphol for Batavia. These belonged to K.N.l.L.M. and were being flown out for their use. Theycarried between 400 and 600 lb. of mail each. Only two purely K.L.M. flights were made that year, the first startingon October 11 and the second on December 11. Neither were particularly fast owing to minor troubles on the way. Political difficulties arose in Iraq, and the second periodbegins nearly a year later, on September 12, 1929. Nine trips were made at fortnightly intervals thereafter untilthe British Indian Government declared their aerodromes to be unfit. The machines used were all Fokker Vllb withthree Titan engines. Mail varying from 300 lb. to 700 lb. was carried on each journey. The third period began on September 25, 1930, when theIndian Government had lifted its ban, and the service has since then been run on a fortnightly basis. With the excep-tion of one special flight which will be dealt with later, the same Fokker Vllb machines have been used as in the Above is shown the Fokker F.VIIb, fitted with three Armstrong-Siddeley "Lynx," or Gnome-Rhone " Titan " engines, one of the types used both by K.L.M. and K.N.l.L.M. Another type used on the Amsterdam-Batavia line is the Fokker F.IX (three Bristol " Jupiters ") shown below. The centre picture is an aerial view of Aleppo, on the original route to Batavia. 37
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