EMPIRE MAILS BY AIR

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21976, 28 December 1936, Page 11

EMPIRE MAILS BY AIR

twenty tons a week FROM ENGLAND future SERVICE discussed (IBOM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) LONDON, December 5. Statistics which reveal the magnitude of the Empire tur mail scheme --under which all first-class mail will be carried by air without surcharge—were quoted by Mr Dennis Handover, ■traffic manager of Imperial Airways in this year’s lecture in memory el Sir Selton Branckcr, formerly Director of Civil Aviation, who was killed in the RIOI disaster. Mr Handover declared that the estimated mail to be carried by _thc aeroplanes' throughout the Empuc migl be expressed as approximately 16. million ton-miles annually. Even figure was not comprehensive, because it did not include mail between Empire and foreign destinations nor inter-Empire mail such as from Keirya to India, or Hong Kong to Lagos. Ho added: “Actually the tonnage cn mail leaving England each week will about 20. amounting to nearly ~,000,000 letters from this country alone. He stated that normal weekly services under the scheme would be. London-Sydney. two; London-Singa-pore tlircfij Londou-Calcutta, five, London-Egypt, nine; London-Kisumu, three; and London-Durban, two; with provision for connexions to China 3nu West Africa. “Although these will be normal schedules, Christmas periods will necessitate the use of about -0 large aircraft day and night, backwards and forwards, for about four weeks, running seven services a week to Australia, nine to India, 15 to Egypt, and five to Africa, all with their compensating return schedules. “The increase in mail to be carried will involve readjustment of division of space on aircraft between mails, passengers, and freight. Whereas now passengers generally outweigh mail and freight, in future the mad will outweigh passengers and freight.” Flying-Boat Advantages Mr Handover emphasised several of the less widely appreciated reasons why Imperial Airways decided to operate many of the main Empire services by flying boats and some by land aircraft. He said: “A strong argument for the use of marine aeroplanes, particularly in the and in Africa, is the limitation imposed on increase in the size of land aircraft by capability of the surface of land aerodromes to bear their weight. Bogging of present-day aeroplanes of comparatively light weight is not an infrequent occurrence at a number of aerodromes on the Empire routes, and it is considered that regular operation of land aeroplanes of the considerably greater weight necessitated by future development is a doubtful proposition without excessive expenditure on aerodrome construction and maintenance. “There are other advantages in using flying-boats in certain circum-stances--particularly if a coastal route can be followed—such as the improved performance and take-off at sea-level compared with that at hign altitude aerodromes; and, in general, fuel supplies on the seaboard are considerably cheaper than at inland aerodromes.”