BY AIR AND SEA.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 177, 28 July 1934, Page 10

BY AIR AND SEA.

COMMERCIAL FLYING.

10,000 MILES IN 13 DAYS

GROWTH IN AERIAIi LOADS

Striking examples arc forthcoming of the. time-savings that can be effected, in tho dispatch of urgent loads over long distances, by a combined use of air and ocean transport. An instance is given of an express parcel containing documents being consisrned by air mail and ocean liner from Victoria, British Columbia, to Nairobi, in Kenya Colony.

This' packet, on its first stage, was flown by air mail to New York. Here it arrived in time to catch the liner Europa, and after crossing the Atlantic, and when still 000 miles from Land's End, it was catapulted from the liner, with other express mail matter, and flown by seaplane to Southampton.

After this the parcel was air-borne by Imperial Airways from London, via France, Italy, and Egypt, duly reaching Nairobi after having travelled 10,000 miles by air and sea in 13 days. By ordinary transport the journey would have occupied more than a month. Not long ago, as another infitance of long-distance transport by mail 'plane and liner, an express parcel travelled 12,000 miles by air and sea from Los Angeles, California, to Poona, in India. In this case the total transit time was 18 days, which represented a saving of 15 days over the fastest surface transport. Further instances of the facilities which, exist for express dispatch by air and sea, were given by an official of Imperial Airways.

"Taking New York as a starting point," he said, "a, parcel can now travel from that city across the Atlantic, and onjtsay, to Cairo, in not more than 10 days, ae compared with 20 by any other means; while a packet by ocean and air will reach Bagdad, from New York, in 11 days, as contrasted with 36 to 42 .by ordinary transport. Even from New ! York to Capetown, the air and sea J transit time is now not more than 18 days—this comparing with from 28 to 32 days by surface travel. What Aerial Waybills Show. "To glance through some recent batches of aerial waybills," he added, "is to realise not only the growth in the quantity, but also in the variety, of air-borne loads. To take just a few typical examples, one now finds a marked increase in the use of the airway for flying urgently required parts and fittings out from Britain to engineering plants located near the stations along the Empire airlines. Very considerable time-savings can be effected by sending euch consignments by air, , thus reducing to a minimum the period during which any portion of a plant has to remain idle, awaiting some essential part. There is also a growing use of air services in the dispatch abroad, and over Empire routes, of urgently needed spare parts for motor cars. Here one many mention the case of a stranded motor car party who, though they were at the time in the'heart of Africa, obtained a spare part from London in not more than a week by air, whereas by surface transport-if might have been a case not of weeks but°of months.

"Figuring often in air cargoes, one finds valuable pictures, delicate electrical and other apparatus, and fragile articles of many kinds. In such cases ■the care in handling which each consignment receives, and the a-bsence of vibration while in flight, renders the airway an ideal means of transport. Medicines and Vaccines. _ "Frequently air borne, at the present time, arc- urgently-needed medicines and vaccines, and such things as manufacturers' samples. The aerial transport of Hvo stock is also greatly on tho increase, ranging, say, from a fully-grown lion, coming over to perform in a circus in Britain, to a crate load of dayold chicks, consigned from. Croydou to some poultry farm on the Continent. "Strange are the cargoes we carry sometimes. Recently, for example, our Africa service was utilised for the rapid dispatch from Port Elizabeth to Tanganyika of a number of live ladybirds needed in -combating a mealy-bug plague in the coffee (plantations. Not long ago, also, we brought over to England" from Africa by air, for laboratory purposes in connection with the insect-fighting campaign, several crate loads of live locusts."