CIVIL AVIATION.

Manawatu Standard, Volume L, Issue 118, 15 April 1930, Page 7

CIVIL AVIATION.

BRITISH DEVELOPMENTS. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBi, April 14. Among early developments in civil aviatioii is the construction programme of Imperial Airways. Limited. Before the end of the present year Imperial Airways will have in use eleven big new aircraft, eight land aero'pianes, and three flying boats. The eight land aeroplanes are being built by tho Handley Rage Company. Four of them are torty-seaters, and are intended for the European stage of the air routes. They are biplanes, each fitted with four Bristol Jupiter engines, and each having slotted wings. Unlike previous British airliners, these machines will have corrugated metal fuselages. The other ' tour will be identical, with the exception that they will carry only twenty passengers, the remainder of the space and lift capacity being needed tor mails and other freight. These are intended for part of the India route east of Cairo. The three flying boats are being built by Short Brothers, and these also are lour-engined, forty seaters. They are needed tor the Mediterranean section of the routes to Lidia and Africa. The weekly air mail to India was speeded up yesterday by the saving of a day. This was due to the fact that the service does not now include the long railway section from Cologue to Athens. Instead, Imperial Airways ■airliners take the mails and passengers all the way to Uskub, via Vienna, and Budapest. The only rail section is from Uskub to Salonika, and from Salonika the flying boats cross to Alexandria, land aeroplanes doing the rest of the journey. Alexandria is reached in three days from England, and Karclii in seven days.