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Aviation History
1950
1950 - 0870.PDF
FLIGHT, 4 May 1950 AIRLINE PIONEERING in AFRICA How a Route Along trie Nile Was Prospected 24 Years Ago "THE recent visit of H.R.H. the Duke of ' Gloucester to East Africa to present the King's Charter granting Nairobi the status of a city recalls a series of pioneer civil flights made in 1926-27 to develop communi- cations between the Middle East and this pan of Africa. The operators primarily concerned were the old-established North Sea Aerial and General Transport Company (o subsidiary of Blackburn and General Aircraft, Ltd.), who today run charter services at Brough. In this article a member of their staff recalls the pioneer African flights which, in spite of a series of misfortunes, provided a sound basis for subsequent services. Slipway: Capt. H. S. Broad taxying the D.H. 50 dow*n the mud into the Medway after the aircraft had been named Pelican by L^rfy^Ormsby-Gore. •»y " Flight " photograph. T HE air transport firm of North Sea Aerial and GeneralTransport was formed in 1919 by Mr. Robert Black-burn and his brother, Captain Norman \V. G. Black- burn, as a subsidiary of—as it was then known—the Blackburn Aeroplane and Motor Company; the initial object was to run a flying-boat service between Hull, Ham- burg and other ports on the North Sea coasts. Associated with the venture was Capt. T. A. Gladstone, who had a distinguished war record and was a flying-boat pilot of outstanding ability. In 1924, while on a tour of Central Africa, he was impressed with the possibilities of Flight " vhutogruvh. The survey of the Nile route through Africir*%Ma4_continued_ by Sir Alan Cobham's famous Short Singapore, seen an air transport service along the Nile between Khartoum and Kisumu, which is in the north-east corner of Victoria Nyanza. On his own initiative he opened negotiations with the Governments concerned and, as a result, the authorities of Kenya, Uganda and the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan agreed in principle to give assistance in a preliminary survey of the air route which was to be the first step in a branch joining the Imperial route to Cairo. The Kenya Legislature agreed to contribute ^2,000 towards the cost of a prelim- inary survey, which it was estimated would cost ^9,000, and one-third was to be provided by Blackburns. The scheme was to use seaplanes operating from the Blue Nile and Lake Victoria. Initially it was intended to run a service weekly in each direction with eight passengers and 50 lb of luggage per'person, together with 500 lb of mails and freight, and later the route was to be extended to Cairo in order to connect with the Imperial Airways' London-to-india service. •-• •, -. < - ^ Quadripartite Effort • - ' - The venture promised to be very representative of the British aircraft industry, for the machine to be used was a de Havilland D.H. 50 powered by a 420 h.p. Bristol Jupiter Mark VI engine; the airscrew was made by Fairey's; and the whole was mounted on twin floats constructed by Short Brothers. The aircraft was named Pelican at a ceremony at Rochester on November 15th, 1926. On December 30th, 1926, the first of several misfortunes intervened. The Pelican was taxying on the Blue Nile when the bow of the port float was ripped open by a sub- merged log. To replace the damaged D.H.50 the Air Ministry loaned a Fairey III D seaplane powered by a 450 h.p. Napier Lion, and on February 7th Capt. Gladstone arrived at Khartoum, to leave on the following day for the inaugural flight to Kisumu over the route which had previously been meticulously surveyed on the ground. He arrived on the 13th and returned the next day, with 120 lb of mail, via Jinja, Butiaba, Mongalla and Malakal. From Khartoum the Royal Air Force flew the mail on to Cairo, where it arrived on February 20th, thus saving 15 days over ground transport. The 1,400 miles from Kisumu to Khartoum had been covered in 23 flying hours, and it was anticipated that the krip would normally be flown in three days of seven air- 'borne hours each. Another round flight was made, and although this East
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