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Aviation History
1933
1933 - 0531.PDF
FLIGHT, SEPTEMBER 14, 1933 AIR TRANSPORT THE TATA AIR MAIL An Unsubsidised Service in India I ftfr TlfT^ the name of the Empress! The overland mail." Lovers of Rudyard Kipling will remember the poem in which he described the work of the Indian mail runner, a tough postman who takes the mail bags to places not reached by the railway. With his postbag slung over his shoulder and a spear hung with jangling bells in his hand, he trots untiringly along jungle paths, up mountains and down valleys. The bells are to scare wild beasts out of his way, while the spear is his only protection against man and beast. On very many occasions the said spear has proved but a broken reed, and each year official reports tell of mail runners who have fallen victims to tigers and sometimes to dacoits. There was, and still is, romance well worthy of Kipling's pen in the work of the mail runner. As yet no poet has sung the romance of the Indian air mail. In the land of contrasts, the mail pilot is the opposite number to the mail runner, and deserves at least equal honour. Tigers are not likely to worry him, nor dacoits, but there are devils in the air, and they much do congregate round the peaks of the Western Ghats in mon soon time. Even in the months of the glorious Indian winter, when all Nature smiles, there is romance in the thought that a letter can leave Karachi before dawn and reach Madras, 1,400 miles away, by 9.15 next morning. This, too, in a country where the mail runner still proudly plies his calling I It was on October 15, 1932, not quite a year ago, that Mr. Vincent took a " Puss Moth " off from the aerodrome at Karachi and so opened the Tata service. It is a ser vice for mails only, and passengers are not carried. Mr. Jehangir Tata, who has flown a " Moth " from India to England and is no ignoramus where aircraft are concerned, holds that passengers must be subordinated to mails and freight for some years to come. With mails, he says, almost the only consideration is speed, whereas in the case of passengers, safety and personal comfort are of greater importance. Risks may be taken with mails which would not be permissible with passengers. The service is also unsubsidised. A 10-year contract with the Government of India has been signed which pro vides for payment of a certain rate per lb. carried, accord ing to the distance over which the mails are flown. The postal surcharge covers the rates payable to the Tata firm, and so the service costs nothing to the Indian taxpayer. The service was started in October last year, so as to avoid having to tackle the Indian monsoon before experi ence of the route had been accumulated. The fine Indian winter lay ahead, followed by the baking summer, which is trying, but means perfect visibility. The South-West monsoon starts in June and lasts until about the end of September. During those months rain is almost incessant, and is very heavy. In parts of India it is not uncommon for eight inches of rain to fall in a day, and even heavier falls are known at times. When flying over the plains it is often possible to dodge the monsoon storms, but to get caught by one when crossing a mountain range would be a very unpleasant experience, unless the aeroplane were equipped with all the latest devices. To appreciate fully the application of the monsoon to this route of the Tata Air Mail, it is useful to give some study to the map and contour maps which we publish with this article. The journey starts from Karachi, and the Tata service is scheduled to work in conjunction with the Imperial Airways service from Croydon to that port. The Imperial machine arrives on Friday afternoon. Mails for the South which are to go on by air are transferred to the Tata " Puss Moth," which starts off about dawn on the Saturday morning. The first part of the trip, at least for eight months of the year, runs along the low-lying coast down to Bombay. There are no particular flying problems about this section of the route, and so we have not in- •3Wl«®SSB!^*S®i38«^ * JvAKACHI : An aerial view of the docks at Karachi, the Indian terminus of the Imperial Airways' eastern service, and the starting point of the Tata Air Mail. (Photo by courtesy of the High Commissioner for India.) 907 B
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