EMPIRE AIRWAYS

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 265, 5 August 1929, Page 12

EMPIRE AIRWAYS

BRITAIN’S CONQUEST BLAZING THE SKYWARD TRAIL THE LONDON-KARACHI SERVICE (By R. R- Money, late Flying Officer, R.A.F.). Dominion Special Service. “Within five years New Zealand will have ilying-boat communication with Australia and Samoa, states Mr. R. R. Money, who was for four years instructor to the Fleet Air Arm at the Leuchars Aerodrome, in Fife, Scotland. Mr. Money, who is now a resident of the Dominion, has made a careful study ol commercial aviation, which he intends to take up as a career. Below, he briefly describes the development of the first phase in Empire air communications. In articles he will describe in detail the London-Karachi air service, concerning which he has first-hand knowledge, and the possibilities of air transport in New Zealand.

When the history of the British Empire’s conquest of the air comes to be written acknowledgment will have to be made of the great obligations of civil aviation towards the Royal Air Force, and it is Interesting to remember that in years gone by a similar obligation was incurred by the Royal Navy towards private shipowners and sailors. , . In the 16th and 17th centuries, much of the sea fighting and most of the exploring was done by privately-owned ships; in the 20th century aircraft belonging to the Royal Air Force have done most of the pioneering work in connection with Empire communications and the transit of passengers and mails. ’ „ . It started with the Peace Conference at Versailles in 1919. Hundreds of British delegates and their assistants were flown between Henley and Le Bourget by the Royal Air Force, and this quasi-military Intermittent service, aided occasionally by a thoroughly civil venture, like the Handley Page one, ensured the continuity of crossChannel air services until in 1924 Imperial Airways came into being. The British Government never lost sight of the problem of aerial communications, and their Air Ministers have had two main objects in view ever since 1924—the establishment of Eng-land-India and England-Capetown air lines, as the first preliminaries of a network of aerial communications throughout the Empire. The first of these Is now an accomplished fact. The second is well on the way. The Government made use of the Royal Air Force in order to blaze the trail. The most difficult stretch of country on the England-India route was that between Cairo and Karachi, so the Royal Air Force was instructed to commence and maintain a regular mail service between Cairo and Baghdad as a preliminary. Most of the country traversed directly between these two places is featureless desert, and as It was essential that only minor deviations from the straight should be allowed (in order to utilise fully the capacity of the aeroplane, limited as it Is by fuel considerations) it became necessary to devise some scheme for guiding pilots across the desert. Selecting Landing Grounds. As a commencement, two car convoys, one from Egypt and the other from Baghdad, crossed the Arabian Desert and selected suitable sites for landing grounds. For some months the aeroplanes followed the tracks made by these convoys, but in the course of time their marks became obliterated, and progress from landing ground to landing ground became difficult and dangerous. Then some genius thought of a tractor and a plough, and eventually a party thus equipped set out from Baghdad. As . the desert is traversed by wandering Arab bands always on the lookout for plunder, the party had to be armed, and had to perform their duty at all times in the manner of one penetrating a hostile country. The ploughing commenced at Ramadieh, and was carried on towards the Bitumen Pools, and thence to landing grounds 2,3, 4 and 5, over ground which was in some places so rocky that endless difficulties and breakages occurred. In one day thirteen tyres had to be changed.

A delay occurred at landing ground 5 owing to the failure of an aeroplane to arrive with supplies, and in the light of the mishap to the Southern Cross it is interesting to recall that the convoy's wireless operator picked up the message from the wrecked aeroplane, which was being transmitted by handgenerator. The message was re-trans-mitted to Baghdad, and within two (lays another aeroplane had come out, picked up the crew and supplies of the wrecked machine, and brought them to landing ground 5. In the meantime the convoy had been living on gazelle meat, so the food question had not become acute. Much time and labour were expended in leaving a good mark to and from landing ground 9, because here many caravan tracks converge for the crossing of the Wadi Abaille, and the convoy were not sorry when they reached El Jldd, half-way between Baghdad and Amman, though here they found the ground so thickly littered with black scorpions that they were compelled to sleep in the cars. They did not know which they disliked the more, these scorpions or the smell and the innumerable flies of the Bitumen Pools. Landing ground R on the Transjordanian frontier, the limit of this party’s activities, was safely reached about a month after leaving Baghdad, and here an aeroplane landed to give them the satisfactory news that the furrow showed up clearly from 6000 feet, and gave the appearance of someone having taken an enormous pencil and drawn a line irrespective of contour upon the country which lay maplike beneath.

In this manner the whole of the desert air course was marked, and since completion it has only been found necessary to renew part of the ploughing. The desert holds its marks wonderfully. Royal Air Force aeroplanes on practice photography flights have taken thousands of photographs in this land of dead kingdoms, and, thanks to Mr. Crawford, the Editor of the “Antiquary,” 1700 of these are now In the British Museum.

Study of the photographs revealed wonderful records of dead cities, now levelled, and Indistinguishable on the ground through their covering of dust and dirt. Main streets, narrow streets, house plans, palaces and gardens all show up in the photographs. It may be remembered that the complete plan of the great Roman Station at Calstor. on the Lincolnshire Wolds, was discovered by an accidental photograph taken from a Royal Air Force aeroplane in the course of practice ;ilie jourpqy from Baghdad Uy Basra