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Aviation History
1931
1931 - 0197.PDF
27, 1931 THE AIRCRAFT ENGINEER SUPPLEMENT TO FLIGHT of what is taking place both in the Empire and abroad. ,p 1 on previous page.) British Empire. Oiling the quarter-year ended September 30, 1930, n-9 tons of letter air mail were carried from England. i This was an increase of 20 per cent, over the corresponding auarter of 1929. The details of the services are given below:— Quarter ending September, 1929. 1930. Lb. Lb. India. Iraq, Palestine, and Egypt ... 8,548 11,547 Iraq (by air from Gaza) ... ... 3,430 No service. Australia, internal services ... 967 1,402 South Africa internal service ... 357 2,076 Other extra European destinations 1,256 1,500 Continental air service 7,519 9,982 Total services 22,0771b. 26,5071b. 9-85 tons 11-9 tons. The introduction of blue air mail posting boxes in the London area appears to have been contributory to attracting additional traffic, as the air mail for the European countries alone increased by 33 per cent, as compared with the quarter ended September 30, 1929. As an indication of the total air mail and freight traffic- that has to be dealt with in the course of a year, the following are given for 1929 :— Tons of Air Tons of Mail. Freight. Great Britain (including all Imperial airways) 99-2 839-7 Australia 33-8 100-3 Canada 194-2 1,742-8 South Africa 1-3 — New Guinea 2-0 867-5 Total services 330-5 tons 3,550-3 tons. (As a point of interest, it may be assumed that letters work out at the rate of 89,600 to the ton.) India. The 6,000 miles of Empire airway to India were opened on March 30, 1929, and the use made of this service for mail has been quite gratifying. During the first five months of its life the weekly mail to India rose at the rate of 2,000 per week from 12,000 letters (but even so, there is still tremendous room for its growth, as the total weekly mail leaving this country for India is of the order of 11,000 lb.). The G.P.O. publish, at frequent intervals, details of the Indian service, and copies of the leaflet can be obtained free at any head post office. The present service is weekly from London, the mail closing at G.P.O., London, every Saturday at 6 a.m, The saving in time to Delhi is 7| days over the usual 16 days by boat and train. On December 30, 1929, the Indian State Air service extended the air mail to Delhi. As soon as practicable the service will be extended to Calcutta and Rangoon with aircraft owned and operated by the Indian Government. Mails only will be carried at first, and it is hoped to get the Karachi to Delhi section equipped for night flying during Australia. Commercial flying has been developing steadily in Aus- tralia, and the following table gives an idea of this growth :— 1924. 1925. 1926. 1927. 1928. 1929.* Freight (lb.) 8,498 29,103 88,926 134,205 144,955 224,697 -<utters lmmbers)204,472 259,505 287,647 301,971 308,883 391,298 * This does not include the letters carried on the Perth- route (1,453 mis.), which was opened June 2, A and which, in itself, accounted for 27,003 lb. (approxi- mately 1,080,000 letters if reckoned at 40 letters to the 1 lb.). This is really a remarkable service, and its success may be attributed to the fact that it saves six days in getting a reply to a letter over the normal system. (Further illuminating particulars of the Australian air mail services can be seen in FLIGHT, October 17, 1930, pp. 1145 and 1146.) New Zealand. There are no regular air services at present, and the linking up by air of New Zealand with Australia is really essential before internal routes can be opened up. The Post Office of New Zealand has asked for tenders for Dominion air mail services, but an immediate subsidy is not to be paid. On the other hand, the contractors can have receipts on air mail stamps, less a certain percentage. South Africa. 1931 should see the establishment of an important air mail service linking up the Cape with England and Euiope. It is not proposed to say very much here concerning this service, as it has been dealt with very fully in the press. The African route will be a splendid example of what the co-operation of various countries can achieve, and subsequent results should enable one to see what a valuable asset air mail services can be in speeding up commerce generally. Canada. There is an interesting record of air mail development in Canada, for the introduction of air mail services to outlying districts has opened up new parts, especially in the mining districts in the sub-arctic and in N. Ontario. The wide variation in the climatic conditions of Canada has led to certain features being adopted as standard. Water- cooled engines are not used ; maintenance must be the minimum necessary. The high wing monoplane is the type preferred, incorporating a single engine. What is required in Canada is an aeroplane landing-gear that combines wheels, floats and skis, as all three may be required at different stages. During 1929 the Commercial aircraft companies of Canada carried 430,636 lb. of mail and 3,903,908 lb. of freight and express parcels with no loss of mails or damage. The service was interrupted at times by bad weather conditions and forced landings. Mail carried in 1927 was 14,684 lb., and in 1928 was 316,631 lb. Newfoundland. Newfoundland is hoping to begin an experimental mail service this year. The contract calls for six two-way trips from St. John's to towns in the N. Peninsula. The distance of a single trip is 720 miles, and there will be one flight per week. The aeroplanes are to have a carrying capacity of 300 lb. of mail. Transatlantic Air Mail Service. Much publicity has been given of late to the question of the practicability of such an air service, operating from, say, Charleston or New York via Bermuda and the Azores to Europe. The stages would be, roughly, 700, 2,000 and 900 miles, respectively. A discussion of this proposed service is left to the last section of this article. The use of such a service will be apparent to all. An alternative scheme at present under consideration is one which uses aeroplane and mail boat, and would combine the interests of Imperial Airways, the Cunard and White Star Lines. With this scheme, India would be 14 days from San Francisco, and New York 11 days from India. Later, there would be a possibility of connecting up with the S. African airway, which would save a considerable amount of time for carrying specie and urgent documents. The interest gained on the time saved in transporting bullion, it is believed, would more than counterbalance the added expense of such a service. (Interest per day on £1,000,000 at 5 per cent. £137.) United States of America. It is to the United States that one must look to see how great an efEort has been made to make the application of air
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