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Aviation History
1935
1935 - 0289.PDF
FEBRUARY 7, 1935- FLIGHT. 143 LINK up the EMPIRE! A Plea for More Flying-boat Services and for a Wide Extension of Our Empire Air Lines ; Building for the Future By C. N. COLSON 3*"<3? ' • • . ours is the most scattered collection of pieces of land of all the collections which go to make up the empires and nations of the world." In this map of the British Empire are included those closely associated kingdoms, Egypt and Iraq. EVEN a cursory study of the make-up of the British Empire must engender in the minds of thinking people a question as to why the air is not more widely used for linking up this widely scattered Empire of ours. Take a look at a map of the world and examine in par ticular all those pieces which are coloured red (passing for the moment the irony of colouring the least Com munistic Empire red!). Doesn't it strike you at once that ours is the most scattered collection of pieces of land of all the collections which go to make up the empires and nations of the world? This will probably recall to you the fact that if it had not been for our supremacy "n the sea in years gone by the British race would never ave been able to hold together such a scattered Empire. from that, ponder on the present day; think of the great ners and merchant fleets of other countries; of the umbers of ships laid up in English estuaries, and of the any abortive naval conferences, and then start to wonder nat the effect on the stability of this Empire is going 0 be when our gradual loss of maritime supremacy really tarts to make itself felt. Probably you will be overcome with despondency. But ere is no need for that; the remedy lies above you. •ook into the air, and there you will see the solution of rit\m§lre'S Problems- Everything the sea did for the msn Empire during the days of its foundation can now carried on, and carried on even better, by use of the e b th • S^a' the air knows no boundaries. They media in which everyone is free, or nearly so, ver lT/£d g° 3S he PIeases- Unfortunately, the air nd becomes almost daily more cluttered up with restrictive regulations; before long it will be as useless a highway for international transport as is the land itself to-day. It is primarily the air over sea to which we must turn, and those two mediums used together offer possi bilities for the building up of transport services which will link together our Empire for its commercial, political and military betterment. The air services which to-day run to the ends of our Empire are magnificent in the work they have achieved. They fulfil their purpose and serve as a fast-moving stream down which mails and commerce can flow, but they are limited in their scope, benefiting primarily the parts of the countries along their routes. Take, for example, that masterpiece of organisation, the Cape-to-Cairo air route. Throughout its length it is mainly over British territory, and, as such, has already become the best-used highway of that vast area; but it has been laid out as a convenient route to the Cape rather than to serve centres of com merce on the way. However, as an air line this all-red route through Africa has proved itself since the day it first started. Nevertheless, I suggest that there is a very great need for a wider view of the duties of an Empire air line. The aerodromes of the existing route are in many cases built in somewhat out-of-the-way places, and that does not somehow seem a sound commercial proposition. Consider for the moment the way in which a continent like Africa has been developed. You will see at once that its develop ment lines have been such as to produce a flow of trade from the interior via rivers and railways to the coast, so that it is on the coast that you have the really busy
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