AIR SERVICES.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20543, 11 May 1932, Page 15

AIR SERVICES.

RANGE OP INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT. MEALS SERVED ON LINERS. (BRITISH OFFICIAL WIBILMS.) (Eeeeived May iotb, 5.5 p.m.) BUGBY, May 0. The summer service on the great international work of European Airways which is now in operation, is so inter-connected as the result of International conferences, that companies provide regular daily air services from London to 130 European cities and towns. It is possible to fly from London to Baslp and back in a day. On the ordinary services meals are now regularly served on liners. Now that the Imperial Airways is operating complete through routes to Cape Town, as well as to India and the Continental services, the company's fleet of multi-engined aircraft is flying regularly over 14,000 miles of aerial routes along which there are fifty main and intermediate air stations. ENGLAND TO CAPE TOWN. MOLLISON'S GREAT PLIGHT. THE WEST COAST ROUTE. (f*ok oua ow»» cobbmpoh»«h*.j LONDON, March 31. Once again Mr J. A. MoUison, the remarkable young Scotsman who accomplished seven months ago the fast- ! est journey in history between Australia and England, has demonstrated—in tho words of the Air Minister's congratulatory telegram—"what British aeroplanes, engines, and pilots can do." In the astounding time of & days, 17i hours—equivalent to a long week-end—-he has flown from England 6300 miles to Cape Town, surpassing the previous record for the journey by fifteen hours and nearly halving the time taken by the fastest solo flyer to precede him. Mr MoUison has brought the South African city nearer in tune to London than was Edinburgh af hundred years ago. Early last Thursday morning he climbed into his machine at a Kent aerodrome and took off for the south; on Monday evening he descended on the beach at .Cape Town. There he feared that the dazzling effect of the light beacons oa the aerodrome might be too much for his tired eyes and nerves; he flew instead to the beach, making a perfect landing'but nosing over in the soft sand near the water's edge. The airman's schedule for the flight covered the distance in four days three hours. The additional time taken is explained in unforeseen rests enforced by fatigue and in the adverse winds met south of the Equator. The Eoyal Air Force attempt to fly non-stop to South Africa, over almost exactly the same route as that followed by Mollison, was postponed after February on the advice of the weather experts, and MoUison's achievement in an elapsed time so near his schedule k all the more noteworthy. ' From start to flaieli his aeroplane, a Puss Moth monoplane, powered with a single 120 h.p. Gipsy HL engine, gave not the slightest trouble. Nowadays the machine has indeed gained capacities that challenge the endurance of the pilots; this and many other recent British flights have shown that the only uncertain factor is the stamina of the pilot. MoUison deliberately set himself a task which few men could hope to perform, and he got through without the help of any artificial means to counteract drowsiness. Even so, he was more "than once on the verge of giving up the terrible fight against sleep, though insistence on the importance of stamina must not be allowed to overshadow the magnificent navigation and piloting skill that carried him over the desert and vast tropical forests to his destination. Long Range Sdngle-Seater. The Puss Moth G-ABKG was built originally more than a year ago for an attempt to fly non-stop across tho South Atlantic Ocean, but its owner at that time gave up the idea when SquadronLeader Hinkler succeeded in a similar machine last November. It carries nothing but bare essentials; the furniture is stripped from the cabin and every possible ounce of superfluous load eliminated. Two special tanks in the after part pf the fuselage carry a total of 120 gallops of fuel, sufficient to maintain the machine in flight non-stop for nearly 83 hours. Luminous instruments, including a turn indicator for "blind" flying, and night navigation \ lights guide the pilot, and extra oil is carried in a supplementary reservoir. In every other detail tho machine is exactly the same as the standard Puss Moth monoplanes used by many prir vate aeroplane owners, among them the Prince of Wales and the King of Iraq. In choosing to fly along the west coast of Africa, MoUison is tho forerunner of regular commercial vehicles which will ply between Europe and Cape Town by way of the Wept African States. The route is 800 miles shorter than that followed by the British airliners through Egypt, East Africa, and the Bhodesias, and has the further advantage that aerodromes can be 'established at low heights all the' way along, one of the chief difficulties in operating the easterly route being that many of tho landing grounds are located perforce more than 6000 feet above sea level, limiting the loads that commercial aeroplanes can carry and intrpduo-. ing serious problems of landing and take-off.

These are not the only considerations. The present Imperial Airways route through Africa serves the British States from north to south. It offers immense saving of time over surface transport of any kind and promises, when thoroughly established, to be a main artery of trade atjd communications through regions that seem destined to Srogress mightily within the next few ecades. But a second service, following roughly Mollison ? 8 youte, must take shape some time, and in the vast spaces of the African continent it will scarcely compete seriously at any* point with the eastern route, except, perhaps, that mails consigned to the Cape may travel along it more swiftly because the distance is. shorter.