The Evening Star FRIDAY, JANUARY 22, 1932. THE LONGEST AIR SERVICE.

Evening Star, Issue 21007, 22 January 1932, Page 8

The Evening Star FRIDAY, JANUARY 22, 1932. THE LONGEST AIR SERVICE.

Cecil Rhodes dreamed of a railway from Cape Town to Cairo. It was a great dream in his time, and it has not yet been fulfilled. But a project, in some ways . more wonderful, “which he did not and could not dream of has now been consummated. When Cecil Rhodes died, almost exactly thirty years .ago, the first aeroplane had not risen above the ground. And two days ago, following tho other triumphs which have been achieved by the new mode of transport, was commenced a service by air which will leave Croydon for Cape Town every future Wednesday, and Cape Town for Croydon every future Monday, making the journey in eleven days. The distance is 8,000 miles. Except for tho aeroplane, the journey through Africa, of about 5,750 miles, can only be made now by a variety of forms of transport (including railways) and at a much slower rate. The now service will bo restricted to mails for a commencement, but it Is expected to carry passengers from next March. It is tho longest organised air line in the world, effectually dwarfing that which up till now has held the record, tho New York-Cristo-bal-Santiago-Bucnos Aires route of 5.880 miles. The way has been well prepared for this development during a period of eight years. Sir Alan Cobham flew over Africa and also round it. It has become almost familiar territory for aviators, women as well as men. Tho London-Cape Town record was reduced last year to six and a-half days by tho lato Lieutenant-commander Glen Kidston, and reduced again by Gordon Store and Miss Peggy Salaman by more than a day. Under the new service of Imperial Highways the mails, and later passengers, will be carried in five different types of aeroplanes. While most of the daily stages will bo over 600 miles long, three of them represent 825 miles each. The eight days of the present schedule overAfrica will be reduced when experience has been gained. It is hoped, by means of night flying, to make tho journey between Cairo and Khartoum in one day, and to reduce tho three days now allotted for tho journey from Nairobi to Johannesburg to two, so that London will bo brought within nine days of Capo Town, as compared with seventeen by sea. The aircraft upon which the service will depend range from new forty-seatcr liners to tho fourteeu-seater Hercules ma-

I chines which have been in use on the Eastern section of the Imperial Airways routes since 1927. There will be about thirty air stations along the route, embracing all varieties of heights and temperatures. The service will mean a great deal, doubtless, to tho opening up of Africa. Three alone of the great territories — all British or under British, control — which it will traverse —Kenya, Tanganyika, and Uganda—have an area between them of 700,000 square miles, compared with 800,000 square miles of India. But their total population is no more than ten millions, as against 250 millions in British India, excluding Burma. The reason for this comparative scarcity of population Sir Edward Grigg has ascribed to the historical isolation of East Africa from the rest of the world and the constant ravages of disease. Science and organisation are now grappling with tho problem, and he is convinced that East Africa will in the future carry a, great many more souls. That must bo still more true of its southern extension, including tho llhodcsias, where the climate is more temperate. Tho British Empire lias done well in aviation. Before this new lino was opened it had 29,300 miles of air route services, compared with 20,650 in the French possessions, 17,900 belonging to Germany, 10,'700 operated by Holland, and 49,550 operated by the United States, tho homogeneous and developed character of whoso country gives it a special advantage for this form of enterprise.