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Aviation History
1932
1932 - 0066.PDF
FLIGHT, JANUARY 22, 1932 we hope, be a special service of mail-planes cruising at 150 m.p.h., and ultimately (again, we hope) flying by night as well as by day. " Farewell, Romance!—and all unseen Romance brought up the nine fifteen." So sang Rudyard Kipling, and in truth modern travel has not banished romance. It has merely been clad in new attire. The organised route offers the charm of adventure without discomfort or risk. Wanderers have never ceased to love a road. It was by roads that the Romans spread their civilisa tion. It was roads which pacified the Highlands after the rebellion of 1745. It is roads which are now mastering the turbulent hills of the North West Frontier of India. Whether man journeys on foot, by stage coach, or by motor car, a road has always made an appeal to the born traveller. The same can be said of a sea voyage, even in the most luxurious liner. A railway, despite Kipling's line, has perhaps gone furthest in divorcing romance from travel ; and yet every traveller can think of stretches of line which bring delight to the eyes and wonder to the soul. There are such railways in the Alps, there are the Himalayan railways up to Simla and Darjeeling, and there are others. Even a journey from London to Edinburgh in the " Royal Scot " is far from prosaic. An airway surpasses all the other means of travel. The traveller who starts off from suburban Croydon in an Imperial Airways liner will sleep at Athens, at Cairo, Wadi Haifa, Khartum, Juba, Nairobi, M'beya, Salisbury, and Johannesburg. What an experience it sounds to spend a night at Juba and another at M'beya! To go to bed at M'beya could hardly fail to be an adventure. That Thursday which ends at such an unusual and unpronounceable resting place will have begun with a very early start from Nairobi, a breakfast at Moshi, and a lunch at Dodoma. What travellers' tales will be told about the strength of the coffee at Moshi, the chops and tomatoes at Dodoma, and the springs of the beds at M'beya! In time, no doubt, these places where our caravan has rested will be familiar in our mouths as household words—no more outlandish to our ears than Montreux or Ventimiglia—or, for that matter, than Ecclefechan and Bettws-y-Coed. As yet the halting places in Central Africa are still full of the mystery of the unknown, and only the aeroplanes can unveil their realities to our comprehension. Out of Darkest Africa the air travellers will gradually emerge into civilisation once more. Salisbury has a very homelike sound. After Rhodesia comes the Union of South Africa, the home of test match cricket teams and of Rugby-playing Springboks. The Veldt and the Karoo may be tamer than the forests of equatorial Africa, but they are sights worth seeing ; and when one is in an aero plane one will not need to gaze at their somewhat austere beauties for too long. The Cape province has charmed all visitors, and Table Mountain is one of the great sights of the British Empire. It may not be so awe-inspiring a sight as the Victoria Falls, or Niagara, or Kinchinjunga seen from Darjeeling, but every home-born Briton who sets eyes on Table Mountain may account himself fortunate. And, when the long but brief journey is ended, it will be an exhilarating thought for the traveller that from the Sudan to the Cape he has never been outside the confines of the British Empire. From the places traversed our thoughts turn to the aircraft which will traverse them. There is surely all the romance of science in the development of aircraft types. The start from Croydon will be made in a Handley-Page 42. The comforts of that great aeroplane have become widely known, and every air traveller is anxious to sample them. From Paris to Brindisi the journey is made by train (two nights and a day). Then comes the crossing of the Mediterranean in a " Kent " flying boat with four " Jupiter " engines. This boat can lift the same weight as the four-engined landplanes can lift, and its comfort and luxury is quite as elaborate. The passengers will disembark at Alexandria, and once more will take to a train for the short journey to Cairo. Next day they will proceed again by land- plane, entering an " Argosy " with three geared " Jaguars." This will take them to Khartum. Then once again they will enter a flying boat, this time a " Calcutta " with three " Jupiters," which will use the Nile and the great lakes as its aerodromes until Kisumu in Kenya is reached. From there on the journey will continue in a : ' Hercules " landplane with three " Jupiters," down to Cape Town, and it will add to the interest of this section to reflect that the " Hercules " machines have spent years in flying from Cairo to India. In time all these last three types may all be supplanted by the four-engi::ed Armstrong-Whitworth mono planes which are being built—provided that land aerodromes can be found throughout the route which will bear the weight of a heavy machine in the rainy season. No doubt these will mark a still further advance in comfort. For the present the variety in the types oi aircraft will, we fancy, add to the charms of what will be the most wonderful journey in the world. • • •> Everyone will be very disappointed on learning that work has been stopped on the big Supermarine monoplane flying boat with six SuTermSne Rolls-Royce " Buzzard " engines, or thePErpiane which was being built for the civil side of the Air Ministry. It would have been interesting to see this boat in operation, and to learn what lessons she could teach. In all probability a boat which would carry 40 passengers and allow some half of them to go to bed would not have been of definite use at the moment on any of the British airways ; but as an experiment the boat would have been welcome. We hope that when times improve work on her will be resumed. However, when economy is necessary we have to do without many things which we should like to have. Everyone knows that the flying boat programme of the Air Ministry has not been abandoned, and there may be other ways, possibly by means of a R.A.F. boat, of learning the lessons which this Supermarine would have taught. At the moment we are of the opinion that the greatest need of air transport is the special mail- plane ; and recently there was doubt as to whether the Air Ministry would proceed with that. Now we understand that this very necessary machine will certainly be produced. This is excellent news. If the choice actually lay between the mail-plane and a large flying boat, which might not have been of much operational use for the immediate present, we consider that the Air Ministry has been well advised to proceed with the former.
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