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Aviation History
1947
1947 - 0336.PDF
214 FLIGHT MARCH 13TH, 1947 MISSION TO INDIA vegetation which is met while flying along the coast near Alexandria. Since the start from Lydda—where everybody but ourselves walked about armed to the teeth—was made on the following morning very soon after dawn, and the last daylight of the pre- vious flight had shown nothing but the expanse of the Libyan desert, the impression gained was a comparatively correct one that, along the thousands ol miles between Tripoli and the centre of India, there is hardly a green tree or a patch of gr#en grass to be seen. It is amazing, in fact, that so very much of the world has become as barren as the surface of the moon, and that so many thousands of human beings manage, somehow, to scratch a living out of the nothingness. For various reasons the eastward flight from Lydda con- sisted first of a stooge along the pipeline to a point west of Rutbah, where we set course for Shaibah—with every in- tention of by-passing this unhappy spot if the fuel state appeared still to be reasonable. In fact, after obtaining QDMs from Habbaniyah and Shaibah, we passed by on a track some twenty miles south of the latter, reaching the Persian Gulf at Kuwait. Here is the perfect example of the comparatively Targe city based, apparently, on nothing but trade and sea fishing, since as far as I could see from the air there was no sign even of the bare possibilities of any form of agriculture. Those who look at a map of the world probably view the Persian Gulf as a little estuarv across which one can take , " Flight " photograph. The entrance to Karachi's harbour. " It is good to look at by night, when only thetwinkling lights of the city and the harbour can be seen. '' an Auster in the matter of an hour or two. In point of • fact, and even at a cruising speed of some 200 knots, one is out of sight of land for two to three hours, according to the track chosen, and except, perhaps, for one or two sail- ing boats, and maybe, a motionless tanker, the Gulf is with- out sign of life. Some of our very best H2S presentations were obtained at the entrance to the Gulf, over Qishm Island. The whole of the north side of the Gulf as well as the smaller islands to the. south of the main island, with thirty miles of the peninsula of Oman and the Pirate coast, showed up bravely—not to mention a couple of otherwise uncharted specks on the P.P.I., which were optimistically claimed to be fishing boats since there were no islands to be seen in their relative position on the chart. More H2S fixes were obtained during the dark off the coast of Baluchistan, with QDMs duly obtained from Jiwani. During a flight east- ts'-'f wards the loss of time and daylight is quite extraordinarily ,? marked. There is a difference of 3J hours in the official %-• time in Palestine and India—which means, in effect, that one has lost that amount of valuable daylight. Mauripur, the Karachi airfield at which we landed, is to the north west of the city, while Karachi Airport is to the south. At one time during the war there were something like a dozen airfields in the Karachi area. Whether or not civil services will always be concentrated at the official airfield remains to be seen, but Mauripur has usefully long runways and a Transport Command terminal building of standard type and considerable merit. More important still, there is, nearby, a transit mess which was originally built, one gathers, for the use of those ubiquitous people, .••• the V.I.P.s The accommodation in this mess is certainly " quite good enough to be offered to any fare-paying airline passengers. To the ignorant and casual onlooker Karachi is yet an- other of those bleak cities for which there appears to have been little original justification. Presumably it lay con- veniently on the trade routes between the Near East and India, but, from the air traveller's point of view, it is.<jp merely a city poised between the inhospitable coast of y. Baluchistan on one side and the limitless Sind desert on ' the other. But it is good to look at by night, when only the twinkling lights of the city and the harbour can be seen. (Part III will appear in next week's issue.) FORTHCOMING EVENTS Mar. 11th.—R.Ae.S, Graduate -nd Student Section, London ment in Propellor Turbine Engines," G. I. C. Davics " Develop- Mcr. 19th.—Royal Aero Club : Annual Genera! Meeting 6 p.m "' - • - - - - • • " p:ig - MA. A.F.R.Ae.S. M-r. 19th.—R.Ae.S. Southampton • " High Speed F'ight." R. Smelt. Lydda's terminal building is a singularly impressive one.This airport is used on the very fast limited-stop B.O.A.C. run to Australia. Mir 19th.—Presentation by Lord Brabazon of the Britannia Trophy to G. C. Donaldson. Mar. 21 t.—Association ol British Aero Clubs Is? Annual General Meeting, Londonderry House, W. [. Mar. Jlit.—United Flying Club's Ball, Dorchjtter Hotel, W.I.
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