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Aviation History
1951
1951 - 1316.PDF
39 13 July 1951 of the merchant adventurers who began opening up the Dark Continent. The Freighters in use carry 40 passengers with freight and baggage, and I was shown one in a shed at Accra which had seating for 56. The seats were quite com- fortable, though there is no more leg-room than in a London bus—but, as no hop lasts more than two hours, and many are far shorter, that is no inconvenience. As many of these services are considerably cheaper than the road, rail, or sea journeys, they are proving highly popular with the Africans. Most of the European commercial employees and govern- ment officials already travel by air on the first-class services as a matter of course, so W.A.A.C. decided they must tap the African "man in the street" for their future potential. There are four of these second-class services in operation now. There is the "Coastal Flyer," once weekly from Accra to Lagos, which covers the 250 miles in if hours for a fare of £4. By sea the journey takes 24 hours, and by road in a "mammy wagon" (the local term for a lorry) two days along a rough and dusty route. The air fare is less than half the cost of surface travel. Within the Gold Coast the "Ashanti Flyer" goes from Accra to Kumasi, nearly 150 miles inland in the heart of the cocoa-growing land. The "Eastern Flyer" goes across the Niger Delta to Benin City and Port Harcourt, over the swamplands which stretch for 250 miles between Port Harcourt and Lagos. By sea the journey to Port Harcourt takes two or three days, and by train it takes four, as the line runs several hundred miles north to cross the Niger, and then south again. The train fare is £14, but by air it is only £4 for the journey of just over two hours. This service, which flies once weekly, connects the eastern provinces of Nigeria with the rest of the country. Finally, there is the "Hausa Flyer" which goes once weekly from Accra to Lagos, Ibadan, Jos and Kano. From Lagos to Kano by this service is about £3 dearer than by Nigerian Railways, but the rail journey takes two days against only about four hours by air. Africans in this corner of the continent have always been very keen travellers, and especially so are the Hausa tribe from the north, round about Kano. Now that the means of quick travel are being provided, they are eager to take advantage of it. They earn much more money than do Africans in East Africa, most of whom do not receive much more than a few pounds in a year. Included in the cost of second-class fares are the coach journeys from city to airport, but there are no luxuries—such as stewards serving refresh- ments—of the kind found on first-class services. All the Africans need for their short journeys is a reasonably com- fortable seat at a low price, and safety. There is no cut-price safety, for the aircrews are the same men, seconded from B.O.A.C., who operate the first-class services. Towards the end of April this year I arrived at Dakar in a B.O.A.C. Argonaut at a quarter to midnight, having left London at 1000 hr that morning. After six hours' good sleep at the Air France rest-house near the airport, I was roused at 0600 hr and, after a hurried but good breakfast with the crew who were to take me to Accra—Capt. Bill Campbell, Local inhabitants save both money and time by using the low-rate W.A.A.C. Wayfarer services. Note the variety of hand luggage. 1st Officer Fred Seeker, and R/Off. Bob Hubbard—we embarked in the Wayfarer and took off at 0640 hr just as day was beginning to break. Dakar Airport is on the extreme tip of Cape Verde, which from the air, looks like a giraffe's head and neck. We took off westward and turned over the South Atlantic, then steered south and flew no miles to Bathurst. As we orbited Bathurst Airport we passed over the notorious chicken-farm where the eggs don't come from! It is about a mile square, and is, I was told, the chicken farm, the whole chicken farm, and nothing but the chicken farm. I had seen many much bigger ones in the United Kingdom, and I wondered how on earth it was possible to lose £800,000 on so small a project in so short a time. Surely only very skilful planners could work as fast as that. We had left Dakar with six passengers, but took on twelve more at Bathurst (these Wayfarers accommodate 28). We were on the ground here for only twenty minutes, and then took off for Freetown, 401 miles distant. Flying at 5,500 feet, we passed over forest, swamp, rivers and broad estuaries. On this part of the West African coast there are many huge lagoons. Only near the rivers are there any signs of habitation or cultivation. The skipper told me he had never seen any big game (such as hippo, lion, or elephant) in West Africa, though there are many large white birds. We reached Freetown in Sierra Leone in 3i hours and landed at a fine airport with a good concrete strip on the northern side of the great harbour, where the town could be seen about five miles distant across the estuary. We had an hour's stop for refuel- ling and took on some more passengers; some got out, so we now had 22 for the 6|-hour flight to Dakar. We had a native steward named Theo, who brought us a
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