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Aviation History
1933
1933 - 0308.PDF
FLIGHT, AUGUST 10, 1933 THE INDIA-AUSTRALIA AIR ROUTE MAJOR H. G. BRACKLEY, D.S.O., D.S.C., Air Superintendent of Imperial Airways, has just returned from a survey flight across India, along the proposed air route to Darwin, and down to Brisbane, Canberra, Sydney, and Melbourne. He went out in the Armstrong-Whitworth " Atalanta " monoplane Astraea, with Capt. Hazelrigg as second pilot, and a crew consisting of Mr. Brown as wireless operator, Mr. Griffiths as engineer, and Mr. W. Hickman as representative of the Armstrong-Siddeley firm. On the return flight he brought with him Mr. Hudson Fysh, managing director of Q.A.N.T.A.S. They took the Astraea back as far as Karachi, and there she was left to go on the Karachi- Calcutta service. The party made the rest of their way home by the ordinary Imperial Airways service via Baghdad, Cairo, Athens, and Brindisi. The route across India is to run as hitherto from Karachi to Delhi via Jodhpur. From there on it cannot yet be considered as quite cut and dried, as the operating companies (Imperial Airways, it will be remembered, are working with an Indian company called Indian Trans- Continental Airways) are still in consultation with the Government of India as to the places where it is most expedient to land. Cawnpore is an obviously desirable stop, as it is the greatest commercial and manufacturing centre in North India. Cawnpore cotton, wool, and leather are well known to all who have lived in India, and are highly appreciated by them. Allahabad is the next stop, and Major Brackley says that the aerodrome there is the best on the whole Indian route. This city, however, is waning in importance. It is the capital of the Province of Agra, and once shared with Lucknow the honour of being alternate seats of the Government of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh. Now the seat of the provincial Government has been permanently situated at Lucknow, though the High Court of Justice still remains at Allaha bad. The Director of Civil Aviation in India (Mr. Tymms) is considering whether it would not be advisable to sub stitute Moghul Serai for Allahabad as an air port. The former is an important railway junction, but has not much other significance, and at present there is no aerodrome there. On the flat Gangetic plain, however, it should be- easy and cheap to make an aerodrome almost anywhere. Other landing places which have been tried are Gaya, chiefly famous as the place where the Buddha found en lightenment, and Asansol. The existing aerodromes at both are bad, and neither is of much commercial importance. The Calcutta aerodrome is at Dum Dum, a few miles outside the city, from which the famous expanding bullets took their name. The spelling which we used is phonetic, and is universally adopted. A correct transliteration of the Bengali name would be Dam Dam, which might be liable to provoke unseemly jests. This aerodrome was recently flooded, and further drainage operations are desir able, and will, it is understood, be put in hand. This flight of the Astraea was deliberately undertaken during the monsoon, so as to give Maj. Brackley a know ledge of Indian conditions at their worst. The Karachi- Calcutta route does not present the same difficulties as the Karachi-Bombay-Madras route flown by the Tata Air Line. The latter has to cross the considerable mountain range known as the Western Ghats, whereas the Imperial route is across the flat plains drained by the rivers Indus, Ganges, and Jumna. The Indus flows into the sea at Karachi. The other two descend from the western Hima layas and flow eastward on roughly parallel lines until they unite at Allahabad. The powerful Astraea was able to make her way round, or above, or through the monsoon storms without undue difficulty. From Calcutta onwards comes the most difficult part of the route. There are various choices of landing grounds. The most direct route for the first stage is to fly across the open Bay of Bengal to Akyab, but a shorter sea cross ing may be made at the cost of greater mileage by flyin^ first to Chittagong and then coasting down to Akyab° Rangoon is the next important place to visit, and there are three ways of getting there. One is to cross the moun tains at once to Minbu and then turn due southward through Prome to Rangoon. The south-west monsoon surges up against the mountain range and breaks up against it. On the east of the range there will usually be finer weather. The second possibility is to fly along the strip of land on the west of the mountains to their southern extremity, and then turn eastward across flat country to Rangoon. The third way is to fly out to sea off the coast. Maj. Brackley tried to do this, but the monsoon clouds came low down almost on to the surface of the Bay, and there are plenty of islands off the coast. They are not mountainous, but they are heavily wooded, and after a while Maj. Brackley decided that wave-hopping in blind ness was not sufficiently amusing, so he went inland and climbed. It seems that this was not a pleasant flight. The next stage was from Rangoon to Bangkok, the capital of Siam. The Siamese seem anxious that Imperial Airways should fly through their country, and, of course, there is a good chance of picking up traffic there. From the flying point of view it is an advantage to get east of the mountain range. The Siamese share with the Japanese the reputation of being the most air-minded people in Asia. They are preparing a line of aerodromes down the River Tachin, at Pitsanulok, Paknam Po, and Lop Buri, and Maj. Brackley had been informed that they would be ready for use and inspection. None of them was ready, so he flew right through to Bangkok. On the way he had a surprising experience. The monsoon clouds lay thick from the ground up to some 9,000 ft. He climbed up to 10,000 and then found himself in clear air between two layers, and proceeded to fly by instruments and D.F. wireless. Suddenly he saw two peaks towering up above the layer of clouds to a height of 9,500 ft. His chart showed them as only 7,000 ft. high, though a more minute examination of the chart afterwards showed an inconspicuous query mark after the figures. Maj. Brackley has added one more item to man's knowledge of the world in which we live. Bangkok is a military aerodrome, and civil machines will not usually be allowed to use it, though the ban did not extend to this flight of the Astraea. The Bangkok aero drome shortly afterwards became water-logged, and will be out of action until the end of the monsoon. Moreover, there is no road from the city to the aerodrome, only a railway, and arrangements have to be made for trains to go out. The civil airport for Bangkok is to be at Hua Hin, 100 miles to the south, but with a rail connection to the capital. The K.L.M. use an aerodrome at Prachuab Gin Khan, 160 miles from Bangkok. Another aerodrome is also being made at Bandon, further south on the eastern coast of the peninsula, but it, too, is not yet ready. Maj. Brackley flew on to Alor Star, in the Malay State ot Kedah. It has a bad aerodrome, and the weather was THE NATURALISED INDIAN : The Armstrong-Whitworth airliner Arethusa, now operated over the Indian section by Indian Transcontinental Airways. 802
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