MAIL BY R.A.F.

Evening Post, Volume XCIX, Issue 34, 10 February 1920, Page 9

MAIL BY R.A.F.

(FBOM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

- LONDON 1, 18th December.

Statistics are now available regarding six months' running of the FolkestoneCologne K.A.F. mail service, which' was terminated; towards the end of October. The .actual cross-Channel service was inaugurated on Ist March, but it was not until the end of July, that a. through service between Folkestone and Cologne was regularly.flown* During the six months' .flying subsequent to Ist .March, 18/12 trips were made, iip to 4601bs weight of mails being carried per machine trip. Of the 1842 flights begun, 96 per cent, were successfully completed. Of. the. 270 through flights from Folkestone to Cologne .begun, 267 were completed—only one per cent, of failurft. The regularity of . sqrvioe: was ■ also good. Mails were carried from Folkestone on 146 but of the 182, and from Cologne on" .139 days! During the six months covered only one pilot and one passenger were injured—both in the same accident.

.COST PER.OUNCE. / Details have also been prepared of the London-Paris service for the same period. This service was carried on by two composite squadrons,' one at Hendon and the other at Buo, near Paris. It differed from the Cologne service as being primarily for passenger work, though official mails and despatches were frequently ' carried. The total number of trips ' njade from the commencement of the service to "the end. of' August was 744, while 934 passengers and 1028 mailbags were carried. Machines were not working to their full capacity in the service., and the result in cost was, therefore, higher than would otherwise haye 1 been the case. The actual cost, after making certain allowances and. taking the average weight of a mail bag as 251b, and of a passenger as 1801b, and working on the figures of May as being a representative month on this service, amounted to. la O^d per ounce per 205 miles. It has not been possible to work out the costing in great detail, but the data, obtained are regarded as indicating roughly the possibilities of commercial aviation as a paying proposition.