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Aviation History
1932
1932 - 0944.PDF
FLIGHT, SEPTEMBER 16, 1932 AUSTRALIA-ENGLAND AIR MAILS r" [ip- HE recent announcement, to (^ [I which we referred the other III week, that the Royal Dutch Air Lines (K.L.M.) had offered to convey the air mails from Europe to the Australian coast with the introduction of larger and faster machines on October 1, and without any guarantee of revenue, has created considerable interest in many quarters of Australia, and has again focussed attention on the work of the Dutch Air Lines. Having operated regularly over the 9,000-mile route between Amsterdam and Batavia for some years, the Dutch company has decided to still further improve the excellent service provided, and the new programme, which comes into operation on October 1 of this year, includes the use of larger and faster machines, in which there will be suffi cient additional capacity available for the Australian mails. A reduction of the usual eleven days between Amsterdam and Batavia to a proposed schedule of nine days makes the service of still greater value, and would thus enable mails from Europe to reach Wyndham in twelve days by a regular weekly service. If there were no intention to re-arrange Australian air services, and if there were no real desire to create an all-British air mail service between Australia and Eng land, there would still be quite an appreciable advantage by the Dutch company connecting with the air service on the North-West coast of Australia, and allowing letters to be carried by air to Perth and to Adelaide. For points further east the rail services would be available, but by such a plan some capital cities would lose several days each way in comparison with a more direct distribution by a new air route from Wyndham via Alice Springs to Adelaide, which would also connect with Q.A.N.T.A.S. service at Newcastle Waters for Brisbane. There are thus three organisations negotiating for an Australia-England air mail link—the Q.A.N.T.A.S., West Australian Airways, and Australian National Airways group ; the Larkin Aircraft Co. ; and K.L.M. One of the proposals, presented by A.N.A., was for a service between Wyndham and Rangoon at 3s. 3d. per mile, or between Wyndham and Delhi at 3s. 6d. per mile, thence by Imperial Airways or any other British operating company. A committee of inquiry into Australian aviation was set up by the Commonwealth Government last month, and it is not only considering the plans submitted for the Sketch Map of Australia and its Airways. Australia-England service, but also the resolutions carried at an Air Convention held in June, together, probably, with the vote of a ballot, or referendum, submitted by the Convention to everyone interested in the aviation industry in Australia (to which we refer below). The plans now before the Government provide for the much-desired all-British service, together with a re-arrange ment of internal routes to secure the full benefits of saving 50 per cent, of the time now taken for mails to reach all Australian capital cities from London, and with the splendid example set by the Dutch and the valuable results achieved, the future prospects for these plans can be more accurately forecast. The safety of multi-engined land machines over long sea stretches has been proved by the Dutch to be greater than was usually considered to be the case, while the value of wireless has been established beyond all doubt. Add to these the knowledge that the public is now more fully alive to the value of air mails and would most certainly support a regular service that made such a spectacular saving in time, and there is every reason to expect that the early inauguration of the England-Australia service can be looked for with complete justification. It is to be hoped, however, that it will be an all-British concern. NATIONAL AIR CONVENTION REFERENDUM IN AUSTRALIA I N July the Australian National Air Convention committee issued ballot papers to everybody interested in the aviation industry and requested them to vote on 13 questions. These questions incorporated the policy agreed on at the meeting of the Convention, and which was forwarded to the Minister for Defence. The questions to which voters were asked to indicate them selves for or against were :— 1. ENGLAND-AUSTRALIA AIR MAIL CONNECTION.—That, provided an additional subsidy grant can be obtained, tenders be called for the inauguration of an aerial mail connection to establish a through England-Australia air mail service. 2. TRAINING.—That a credit of £25 be made to each pupil pilot qualifying for an M A " licence under flying instructors licensed by the Defence Depart ment, to be used for further flying with the organisation with which he gained the " A " licence, and that a bonus of £50 be paid to each pilot obtain ing his " B " commercial licence, together with £50 payable to the organisation with which he qualified. A bonus of £10 to be paid to each " A " or " B " pilot each time his licence is renewed. Gliding pilots to be paid bonuses as under, when they qualify to international standards : *' A " gliding licence, £1 ; " B " gliding licence, £2 ; "C " gliding licence, £10. The issue of training agreements, equipment and provision of hangar accommodation by the Defence Department to be discontinued. 3. INTERNAL AIR MAIL SERVICES.—That tenders be called for all aerial mail service contracts and renewals. That steps be taken by the P.M.G. and Defence Departments to replace inland motor coach mail services with aircraft, particularly in S.W, Queensland, Central and North Australia, and Western New South Wales, where little increase in present cost is likely to be involved. No internal air mail service covered by one single contract to exceed 1,000 miles. 4. AIR MAIL CONTRACT CONDITIONS.—That air mail contractors be un fettered by contract conditions, and that, with a view to reducing subsidy rates, contractors be permitted to provide any reasonable type of aircraft of their own selection from time to time provided it caters for the traffic offering, and provided it maintains a reasonable schedule, and that such aircraft carry registration certificates and certificates of airworthiness issued by the Civil Aviation Branch. 880
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