THIRTY YEARS IN THE AIR

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXI, 19 January 1938, Page 5

THIRTY YEARS IN THE AIR

THEN AND NOW l ßy Air Mail—From Our Own Correspondent! LONDON, 16th December. Mr Claude Graham-White has just j been commenting on the progress so short a term as 30 years has produced ,in human flight. It happens that he was the pioneer air postman. In the j first British air mail experiment at Blackpool 27 years ago he carried a | small bag containing about 71b of letI ters. He carried it in a machine that l did 50 miles an hour. This Christmas our Imperial air mails are likely to total 70 tons and the machines that carry them will be planes capable of 200 m.p.h. When Mr Grahame-White engaged in 1910, with Paulhan. in the world’s first cross-country aeroplane contest, they were looked upon as foolhardy pioneers. Their flight was from London to Manchester. To-day he points out. business men. lounging comfortably in armchairs, make much longer journeys by air as a matter of daily routine. The first officially recognised air mail was between Windsor and licndon, a distance of 20 miles. To-day our Empire air mail routes extend over a distance of 30,000 miles.