MAGIC OF AIR-BORNE MERCHANDISE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21650, 21 May 1932, Page 16

MAGIC OF AIR-BORNE MERCHANDISE

QUEER CARGOES BY FLYING MAIL FALSE BEARD TO A PERFORMING LION. By Harry Harper. (Author of “The Romance of a Modern Airway," etc.) “ One often hears people talking of the romance of modern industry as though it was something vague, intangible. Well, all I can say is that if you , want the real thing—the authentic, genuine article —I can show it to you here and now, because the building we’re standing in at the moment illustrates, more probably than any other, how romance and an element of the dramatic now actually mingle with everyday commercial progress.” The words were those of one of the most experienced officials at the London air-port—a man who has been associated since its inception with this wonderful business of aerial transport; and he and I, having met in the big airway booking hall, were as he spoke walking towards those goods departments from which urgent freight is now despatched, in an ever-growing volume, over 13,000 miles of British air-lines. , “To look through traffic way-bills might not sound particularly interesting, continued my guide, “but in air transport, nowadays, they often tell odd, fascinating stories. The other day, just as an example, the Indian air-mail was on the point of departure when a last-minute parcel was maned down from the West End by special messenger. And what do you think our consignment note showed that it contained? Just a false beard. That, and nothing else; and the explanatipn was quite simple. An amateur theatrical performance had been arranged in India, and for the ‘make-up , of one of the actors taking part a special type or false beard was essential. The lack of this, however, had not been discovered until it was too late to obtain one from London in the ordinary way. But by air-mail that beard was in India in a, week, and the situation was saved. And on the same machine that day, as it happened, there was another picturesque cargo —a box of beautiful and costly toys, bought in London for the children of an Indian Rajah, and going out by air not only to save time but to minimise any risk of damage while in transit. Airborne goods, one should remember, receive such careful handling and attention that the airway is ideal for fragile articles, and for this reason electrical and other delicate apparatus, and such , things as valuable pictures, are now consigned regularly by air. “ And here’s another little romance that a recent record shows. Not long ago an engineering plant, located at a point far out along one of our Empire air-lines, was brought to a standstill by the failure of a small but vital part which could only be obtained from a special source in England. To have got it out by ordinary means might have entailed weeks of delay; but a cablegram to the firm here, telling it, to invoke at once the assistance of aerial transport, meant that the part required was actually delivered, thousands of jmiles away, m not more than eight days.” Now, we began to move here and there among the big freight sheds, seeing or hearing something that was of interest on every side. Air transport, one is reminded, not only quickens the movement of ordinary merchandise; it creates new traffic of its own. And here, is an example of that. Grown at various points along our Empire routes are rapidlyripening tropical fruits which hitherto, owing to the time taken by ordinary transport, have never reached the Hendon markets in a suitable condition. Now however, if a consignment is placed in one of the home-coming mail planes, the fruit is actually in the London, shops a few days later, in a prime condition lor eating. And in many other ways, also is the air-mail proving a boon to industries, far-distant, whose territories it serves. Take, for example, the_coffea planters, of Kenya. They now send samples of their crops through to London by air in a matter P of days as compared with weeks by sultface travel. And samples of the Egyptian coffee crops are also coming through regularly to London by air. Just at this moment we interrupted our tour in order to watch a hig fourengined air liner leave for Paris, and, as the mailbags- went aboard, the official who was in charge of the loading gave me another glimpse of the romance of speed. “Our air trip from Croydon to the Paris airport,” he told me, now takes only two hours and a-half, while ground accelerations and the establishment of a post office in the airway terminus at Vic toria mean that urgent letters hy mail now travel right through froim the heart of London to the centre of P arl .s» and are delivered to their recipients in only a little over five hours. And al though when the London-Pans air post was established in 1919 the fee was as much as half a crown, a letter, to-day the combined ai r postage charge is not more than 4d! One can say tiuth fully, indeed, that not only is air mail transport rapid and reliable, but that it is also extremely cheap, remembering the time saved. One can now scnd_ a halfounce letter for 5000 miles to India at a combined air and postal fee of only fid, or for 8000 miles to Capetown for not more than Is.” , , It is, of course, the sheer speed of the airway which brings loads in an evergrowing volume; and how such loads have increased I myself can testify. Twelve years ago, when I used to go out to Hounslow—then the London airport—to watch one of the small pioneer aircraft ascend on its flight to Pans, half a dozen small parcels represented a typical daily load. And now at busy periods nearly 20 tons of urgent freight may be, airborne in and out of Croydon in a single day; while an examination of the records show that in a recent period of nine months the big machines of Imperial Airways carried to and fro above the Channel more than 600 tons of mails and speed attracts loads,” remarked my guide, “is illustrated by the department which now deals with the transport of live stock by air. Take, for example, our frequent consignments of day-old chicks. Here the airway can do something impossible by any other means, because a special crate of chicks, if put on an outward-bound aeroplane here early in the morning, will be delivered at some point far across Europe that same evening. Not long ago, in one consignment, as many as 2000 chicks were flown through from London to Rumania. But come and look through some .of the records of this live stock department.” I did so, and very remarkable they were, for these experts think nothing nowadays of arranging for the aerial transport of a lion, a tiger, a crocodile, or a performing horse. At a moment’s notice, in fact, they are prepared to fit up one of the big cargo planes as a sort of flying menagerie, and one machine actually came in the other day carrying a bear, a number of monkeys and parrots, and a big consignment of tropical fish in tanks. “ Several times we’ve brought fullygrown lions over from the Continent by air,” explained the official in charge. We fit up a strong cage inside the hull or one of the air freighters, and the keeper travels in the machine with his charge. All these performing animals prove docile air travellers. Their keepers tell us, in fact, that they give far less trouble on an air journey, remembering that it is over so quickly, than on any long surface journey with changes from tram to snip and back again to train.” One of the most interesting developments which one now observes is the way in which aerial transport is co-operating with that of the land and sea. Flying does not supersede other methods ot travel. It supplements them, enlarging their scope, and adding to the facilities they offer. Thus one finds Imperial Airways collaborating with steamship companies in an ocean-and-air freight service which now enables urgent freight to reach India from New York in 11 days, or Capetown in not more than 18 days; while by an ingenious train-and-plane service , parcels can now be sent by rail and air from nearly 150 railway stations in this country to any of the 50 Empire air stations along our Imperial routes —this latter system, in some cases, enabling time-savings of more than a month to be effected. If, as Kipling has told us, transportation is civilisation, then one of the most civilising of all powers, at the present day, is that of the high-speed airway, operating not in opposition to hut in conjunction with our other great methods of transport.