WORLD’S AIR LINES

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 308, 27 November 1936, Page 8

WORLD’S AIR LINES

INCREASE IN TOTAL MILEAGE. World air transport is now well on its way towards a route mileage figure of 300,000. Actually the latest official statistics, as shown by the report on the progress of civil aviation, just issued by the Air Ministry, place the total at 278,000. Further routes have been opened up since 1935, and it will certainly not be long before the 300,000 mark is reached.

'That the British Empire rose during 1935 to the position of ranking first in air route mileage regularly operated is shown in the table appended : Air route mileage, 1935: —British Empire, 53,291; United States, 52,461; France, 24,461 • Germany, 22,291; Netherlands, 12,898. In British air-liners flying to and from the Continent during 1935 over 70,000 passengers were carried, this figure being larger than that for all the foreign air-lines combined. , *A remarkable feature of civjl aviation progress during 1935 was the growth recorded in the weight of mails dispatched from England by air. Approximately 10,500.000 letters were airborne from England during the year. This compared with a figure of roughly 6,000,000 for 1934.

AIR HALTS IN THE PACIFIC. One of the romances of modern aviation is to be found in the remote island air-halts of the great trans-Pacific airmail. On Midway Island, lying halfway between America and Asia, technicians have now established a fullyequipped ocean air-station. Yet until the Pacific Cable Company placed one of its lonely posts on Midway, this coral island, with its ideal climate, Was uninhabited save by sea-birds. On another remote spot in the vastness of the Pacific, Wake Island, the engineers have not only provided wireless and re-fuelling facilities, but also a luxurious guest-house for ocean air passengers. Wake Island boasts a lovely lagoon, which acts as an ideal alighting-point for the big flying boats of the trans-Racific air-mails. Yet another of these romantic Pacific ocean air-halts is on the island of Guam, with its heavily-wooded mountains and coral reefs, lying in picturesque splendour beneath a brilliant sun. Linked with the outer world by powerful wireless stations, and used as the regular ocean halts of tile great airliners, these lovely islands of the Pacific are now destined to play their part in the forging of a great air-chain which will soon, stage by stage, be extending completely round the globe. THE WORLD OF WINGS. The International Chamber of Commerce is investigating methods for promoting further co-operation between air transport and land and sea transport. Increasing passenger and mail loads are reported by the various commercial air-lines in China. The poorness of surface transport enables the flying routes to show immense savings of time over any other method of dispatch. The new Lydda air-port,• Palestine, is to have a racecourse and polo-ground attached to it which will, it is hoped, serve to augment the air-port revenue. The commercial service with am-phibious-type aircraft which- is being operated in the Hawaiian* Islands carried 13,551 passengers during 1935, as compared with 10i373 in 1934 and 6808 in 1933, Honolulu is the air-base, and daily services are flown to Lihue, on the island of Kauai, and to Hdo, on the island of Hawaii. Forty delegates travelled by air to the recent South Africa transport conference at Johannesburg, at winch many matters were discussed affecting air transport developments in South Africa. Sir Abe Bailey has offered £IO,OOO to be used for the encouragement of civil aviation in South Africa. A feature at the Victoria Hotel, Port Darwin, Australia, is the a y ia^o room,” scribbled on the walls of which are the signatures of many of the airpioneers who have w-on tame by then flights on the great England-Austraha 10 Figures compiled just recently slio'w that°the four-engined air-liners operated on the Singapore-Bnsbane stages of the England- Australia route, have now completed 900,000 miles of flying without a single forced-landing. It is reported that more than halt the villages towns and cities of America now have tlieir _ names displayed, for the guidance of amnen in letteimg which is visible at a height of 4000 feet in normal weather. Nearly three and three-quarters tons of Empire air-mail —representing approximately 350,000 letters—now leave London each week This is an increase of almost one and a qunitei tons P® week as compared with the correspond ing period last year. AIR-PORTS A pp A ?^(i APORE AND Details of the progress which lias been made in constructional and other work on the civil aerodromes at S nga ssiT-Srs vrss Department. Steady progress lias been maintained at Singapore with drainage and land reclamation, and in the construction of a wall protecting the waterfront of the aerodrome. Contracts were also placed for the paving of the areas surrounding the hangars and terminal buildings. Designs were prepared and contracts placed, for two Cars each 300 feet by 150 feet Tenders were invited tor the reinforced slfnwav and the wharf, while the dredging of the seaplane channel was “X the lu°y-Srf the terminal buildings the main feature is a central hah, resembling that of a railway station. Opening on to this are the post office, offices of the operating companies, etc. On either side is accommodation for outgoing a «d incoming air traffic, comprising offices tor passports, Customs and medical servk.es refreshment room, waiting room, et On the civil aerodrome at Penang two runways have been constructed 950 yards long by 200 yards wide, and 800 vards long by 200 yards wide, respectively. Over 30,000 cubic yards of stone had to be quarried, transported, and consolidated to form the metulled runway alone, apart from the earthwork. Owing to the lowlyino- nature of the surrounding ground a powerful centrifugal pump has been installed to remove water from the aerodrome surface. Cables have been laid for flood-lights, boundary lights, etc. ~ NIGHT FLYING EQUIPMENT.

Active work is on hand in Australia for the operation of night-flying air-mail services. Five new emergency grounds are being provided on the Sydney-Brisbane section; while between Melbourne and Sydney there are to be four new grounds. " The aerodrome night-flying equipment is to include boundary and obstruction lights and beacons. At terminal stations such as Melbourne. Sydney, and Brisbane, the radio facilities will include two-way communication between ’planes and aerodromes. Plans are well advanced for lighting the aerodromes at Adelaide, Peith, Launceston, and Hobart. 10,000 MILES IN 12 DAYS. A parcel of valuable drugs needed

by a hospital was recently carried by air ten thousand miles from New York to Pretoria, South Afripa, in twelve days. The hospital at Pretoria ordered certain quantities of anaesthetic from New York by cable. From New York to Berlin they were carried by the airship Hindenburg. There they were picked up by an airliner and brought to Croydon in time to catch the next Imperial Airways service to Africa. Only twelve days from the time when the consignors in New York received the cabled order they were delivered at Pretoria Hcsnitah