AIR MAILS FROM ENGLAND

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22371, 7 April 1938, Page 11

AIR MAILS FROM ENGLAND

LOWER SURCHARGE TO OPERATE REDUCTION OF TWO DAYS ✓ TO AUSTRALIA

FLYING-BOATS TO TAKE OVER

SERVICE *

Cteosi cue own correspondent.)

LONDON. March 12.

Although no official announcement has yet been made by Imperial Airways, it is learnt on good authority that present plans provide for the all-up air-mail scheme to Australia coming into full operation by August 1. On that date all first-class mail between England and Australia will be carried by air, without surcharge on the outward journey, and at 5d a half-ounce from the Commonwealth homeward. Meanwhile the existing service wm be speeded up. It is expected that from the beginning of April the time from England to Sydney will be reduced by at least two days, with consequent savings in the time the air mail takes to reach New Zealand. Further accelerations will follow as operation details-are worked out, provision for night flying and landing is improved, and the Empire flyingboats take over the whole route. Replacement of the DH 86 machines, which now operate the Australian section of the service, by the flying-beats, is tentatively fixed to start at the end of June, but the new machines will probably make several unofficial flights over the route to Singapore before then. By August 1 all the DH SC’s will be replaced, and the entire service from England will then be operated by flying-boat.

Flying-boats For Qantas Airways

The six flying-boats which have been built by Short Brothers for Qantas Airways are now nearing completion at Rochester. Identical with the Imperial Airways machines, they will fly right through from Australia to England when the hll-up service is in operation. The first five machines —Carpentaria, Coolangatta, Coogee, Corio, and Coolong—have already been launched, and the last of them, Cooee, will be launched to-morrow. After the final construction work and tests have been carried out, they will leave at intervals for Australis*.

The first’is due to leave on March 20. It will be under the command of Captain G. U. Allen, well known throughout New Zealand for his Tasman flights, who is now senior captain for Qantas Airways. Captain Allen has been in England since last August taking various aviation and engineering courses and studying every detail of the new flying-boats. Recently he has been engaged in the regular Imperial Airways Empire routes. He has made return trips to Durban and Karachi, and has just returned to England after having tho honour of taking the first all-up air mail to India and bringing onp of the first return services back. Trained In England

Six other Qantas Airways captains, one first officer, and six engineers have also been training in England in recent months, and they will probably take the other flying-boats out to Australia as they are completed. Before they enter into the regular service, the new machines will do a good deal of flying on the Australian coast to train other Qantas Airways personnel in their duties. . Although the flying-boats will make the through trip to England when the full service begins, the Qantas crews will go only to Singapore, at least for a start. Later they may take the machines right through, but there are difficulties in this proposal, as it is very hard for a pilot in Australia to keep up-to-date with the multitude of air regulations and notices of the many European countries flown over on the route to England.

Latest advice from Australia states that the Coolangatta has already been to Singapore. It is expected that the abolition of the surcharge for mails to Australia will come into force on April as the elimination of the surcharge, as far as Singapore, operated from about the end of the first week in March.