THROUGH THE AIR.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19791, 17 May 1926, Page 10

THROUGH THE AIR.

ALAN COBHAM’S FLIGHT TO THE CAPE. Alan Cobham, the distinguished British airman, who recently flew trom London to Capetown to map out a regular air route, landed at Luxor, in Upper-Egypt, and, accompanied by his mechanic, visited on foot, armed with kinema and other cameras, the temples at Luxor and Karnak, They photographed the mighty columns that were meant by the ancients to stand for eternity. Then they crossed the Nile, end mounted donkeys that took them galloping over miles of irrigated fields to the hills and the Valley of the Kings where the tomb of Tutankhamen lies. They took pictures of the Ramesseum (the large temple built Dy Kameaes 'll). The next day they continued their flight up the Nile over the town of Esna and the temples of Edfu, round whose mighty pylons tne aeroplane circled Then tfiey new to Assuan. The first cataract, a wonderful spectacle, lay beneath the aeroplane as it cruised through the still air wrote Mr Cobham in a dispatch from Assuan to the Da.ly Mail. The Nile widened out and two beautiful islands lay side by side—the Elephontme and Kitchener's —both covered with palms and luxuriant vegetation. Above, on the high rocky bank of the cataract an hotel overlooks the winding waterways. Beyond are scores of little islands with large rounded rock boulders piled high one upon another and worn smooth by centuries of Nile floods. Farther up lies the Great Assuan Dam. As the aeroplane flew nearer its occupants could see the whole scheme in one complete view, the great dam extending a mile and a quarter from the rock cliff wails at the sides of the valley that has been turned into a gigantic reservoir nearly 200 miles long which is capable of holding nearly half a million million gallons of water —the key of life to every soul in Egypt. Deep down in the face of the dam row* of tongues of white-crested foam were thundering forth from the open sluices into the cataract below. There are 180 sluices capable of discharging 12,000 tons of water a second. Mr Cobham throttled his Siddeley-Jaguai engine back and floated in the eir over this magnificent spectacle, placing a De Haviland aeroplane in a suitable position so that Emmott, the photographer, could get a film picture of this British engineering triumph. “I noted for my Imperial Airway report the possibilities of a hydroplane base in the reservoir,” wrote Mr Cobham, “while another spot lower down the river could be used when the water is low above the dam. At present steamers take two and a-half days-to‘link up with Wady Haifa, whereas we hope directly to fly the 220 miles in two hours.”