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Aviation History
1931
1931 - 0419.PDF
FLIGHT, MAY 1, 1931 establishes communication with her colony lndo-China.This service, which is operated by the Air Orient Com- pany, runs from Marseilles to Saigon via Athens, Beirut,Baghdad, Karachi, across India to Calcutta and Bangkok. There are also developments in progress in Indo-Chinaitself, of which more anon. Germany and Soviet Russia also have air roads to theEast, the former, in conjunction with Luft Hausa, and the German-Russian lines, into Persia via Moscow,Kharkov, Tifiis and Baku, and the latter with lines ex- tending across Siberia towards China, and also towardsAfghanistan and Tibet. As previously reported in FLIGHT, the German Luft Hansa Company is interestedin the air route from Berlin to Shanghai, and it may not be long before this service starts operations, and fourJunkers machines (two F.13's and two W.33's), pilots, mechanics, etc., have been sent out to Shanghai to startthe section from Shanghai to the Russo-Chinese frontier. Here we might deal with the activities of Soviet Russiain Asia. The principal companies operating in the Soviet ITiiion are the Russo-German Deruluft, and the DobioletCompany of Moscow, which recently merged with the lTkranian company, Ukwozdukhput. Branching from Moscow, which connects with Berlin.Riga and Leningrad, there is the line previously referred to running to Persia ; another serves Kazan, Sverolovsk,Kurgan, Omsk, \ovo Sibirsk. Krasnoyarsk, Nishuiudinsk and Irkutsk, with branch lines from Novo Sibirsk toKuznitsk and from Irkutsk to Aldansk, North-East Siberia, on the way to Alaska.Here it may be mentioned that the United States of America has been considering plans for linking up withEurope by way of Canada, Alaska and Siberia, and with the Orient, across the Behring Strait. The U.S. postalauthorities have already made preliminary investigations and submitted a favourable report.Another line from Moscow, by way of Samara, Oren burg, Kazalinsk, Kizilorda and Tashkent, with branchesfrom Tashkent to Almaata—later linking up with Omsk and Samarkand, with probable extension into Afghanistanand across Tibet to China. Russia is also considering lines northwards towards the Arctic. The machines usedon these various lines are Junkers and Soviet-built machines of the " A.N.T." and " K5 " type. Further extensiveaerial activity is being planned by Russia for the near future.Air services in Palestine and Iraq are at present con- fined to the British, French and Dutch services passingthrough, but local services are not unlikely in the future. Persia, however, has its own services, operated by JunkersFlugverkehr. Besides the route from Europe via Baku, lines run from Teheran to Meshed, Shuaz and Bushire, thelatter linking with Imperial Airways, while it is proposed to extend services to Herman, Duzdap, and Bandar Abbas.Afghanistan is at present without airways, but willing— if not anxious—to try the experiment. Ex-King Amanul-lah ivas keenly alive to the possibilities of aviation, and was, we believe, about to open up air routes in his country,and drew up an agreement with the German Junkers firm for air services between Kabul, Herat and Kandahar.We will now turn to China, where air transport is making good progress, thanks mainly to the energies of MarshalChang Hsueh-liang, who owns and flies his own Gipsy Moth, and China's Minister of Communications, Mr. WangPe-chun. The former has been building up an efficient Manchurian air force, which includes amongst its " rollingstock " a fleet of Gipsy Moths, while the latter is extend- ing air mail services as rapidly as political circumstanceswill allow. Poor roads and absence of railways in North, Centraland South China are speeding up the establishment of air- ways, and many new routes are being opened up southof the Great Wall. Perhaps the most important of China's air routes is one which follows the Yangtze river, operatedwith Keystone-Loening Amphibians by the China National Aviation Corporation, a joint Chinese-American concern.These machines fly regularly between Shanghai, Nanking and Hankow, making the journey in a little over six hours.A service has also been opened between Nanking and Peking, whence the route to Berlin will be opened as soonas final arrangements have been completed. Other exten- sions of this system will be from Hankow to Ichang,Cungkiug and Chengtu, from Tientsin and Peking to various parts of Manchuria, serving such places as Mukden, Harbin,Dairen (linking up with Japan) etc., and southwards from Shanghai to Canton, via Foochow and Amoy.As regards South China, where conditions are somewhat unsettled, the Canton Aviation Bureau recently inaugurateda service linking Canton with Wuchow, Swatow, Hoihow and Pakhoi. Hongkong is also " in the flying," thanksto the activities of the Far East Aviation Co.—of which Mr. R. Vaughan Fowler is managing director—and thehelp of the Hongkong Government. In addition to a flying school, Hongkong is—or will be—linked with Canton byan air mail service. Gcing still farther south, we come to Indo China. Atfirst, aerial activity here was confined to military opera- tions, but recently commercial flying was developed, anda service organised between Veil tine and Vinh, with an extension to Hanoi and later to Saigon. The latter placeis also connected, through Bangkok, with the service from France.Siam, adjoining, also has its air services, but details of these are lacking, although one understands that Bangkok,Korat and Ubol are linked together by air. With the establishment of the Europe-Australian air ser-vices and other Far East routes, it is expected that develop- ments will be forthcoming in Malaya—a service betweenSingapore and Penang has already been planned—and tin- Philippines. The Philippine Aerial Taxi Company wasrecently formed in Manila, and machines ordered by them, but wiiether they have started operations we have yet tolearn. Apparently, a service is planned between Zam- boanga and Manila—and probably across the South ChinaSea to Hongkong. We have already dealt with, in a previous issue 01 FLIGHT, the air services operating in the Dutch Eas*Indies, and it now only remains for us to refer to the air lines of Japan. The Land of the Rising Sun has maderapid strides in commercial aviation of late. For a long time Japan has made big efforts to build up an aeroplaneindustry of her own—and with some success. At first she concentrated on military and naval aeronautics, butrecently the Government has turned its attention to com- mercial aviation, and it will not be long before Japan willprobably rank foremost amongst the Eastern nations in this respect. Extensive government aid is being given to commercialaeronautics in Japan, and during the next 11 years the government contemplates subsidising the aircraft industryto the extent of about $10,000,000 (gold). Wireless beacon stations have been erected at Tokio, Hakone, Nara, Osaka,and Fukuoka, while route marks have been placed at eight places between Tokio and Fukuoka, and five meteorologicalstations have been laid down. There are at present 42 civil airports and landing fieldsin Japan, and a new airport has been laid down for Tokio, at Haneda on Tokio Bay, less than half an hour from theheart of the city—much more conveniently situated than the old aerodrome at Tachikawa. The Japanese Air Trans-port Company, the principal operator of air services in Japan, runs regular services between Tokio, Osaka,Fukuoka and Dairen in Korea, and between Tokio and Sendai. It is hoped to extend the services with linesbetween Fukuoka and Shanghai and Fukuoka and Taihuku in Formosa. Japan also proposes to link up with Sovietair lines in the north—i.e., Vladivostock, Alexandrovsk, etc. At first the Japanese Air Transport Co. employedJapanese-built machines on its services, but recently changed over to Fokker Super-LTniversal F-7-SM's. CIVIL AVIATION PROGRESS IN CANADA Aviation Branch of the Dominion Departmentof National Defence reports a steady increase in commercial flying last year, there having been atotal of 135 operating concerns, or 50 more than in 1929. The total number of hours flown was 87,453, anincrease of 7,667 during the twelve months. Returns from the nineteen principal commercial operatorsand three mining companies and the Ontario Provincial Air Force indicate a total of 52,621 hours flown by those concernsa mileage of 4,350,970 covered, and 55,961 passengers and 1,449,337 lb. of freight carried. Three additional air mailroutes were established in Canada during 1930, bringing the total to nineteen, and these were operated by seven companiesunder contract with the I'ost Office Department. The total length of Canadian air mail routes in 1 930 was approximately6,487 miles, of which 1,200 miles are now lighted for night 387
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