EMPIRE AIRWAY

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 17954, 5 December 1932, Page 9

EMPIRE AIRWAY

ENGLAND TO AUSTRALIA HOPES FOR NEXT YEAR LONDON, October 28. Negotiations for the establishment of an England-Australia airway—tlie subject of discussion ever since _ the first flight between tlie two countries in 1919 —have at last reached a point where Colonel Shelmerdine, Director of Civil Aviation in Britain, is able to express a “confident hope” that an air mail service to Australia will begin regular operation next year. Colonel Shelmerdine indicated thatImperial Airways would probably extend their service by co-operation with all Indian company from Karachi to Singapore and that tho rest of the eastern section would he undertaken by Australian interests. Port Darwin, which lias seen tlie beginning or the cud of many flights between England and Australia, is envisaged as the radial point for services connecting tho main Empire trunk line with the chief cities of the ('ornmoiiWealth.

WORLD’S LONGEST AIRLINE Thus the way to the inauguration of the world’s longest air line—and because of the route it follows potentially far the most, important of the network of possible trunk routes all over the globe —seems elAir. Many details have still to be worked out and important discussions are going forward daily in London, Delhi, and at Government and air lino headquarters in Australia. Still to lie announced is the reply of the Australian authorities to the offer of the Dutch to extend their service to the Netherlands East Indies as far as Australia, though it is hoped that file idea of “allEmpire” operation will not be jeopardised. The attitude, of the Indian Government, which has invariably asserted it's right to control all air line traffic in India, upset earlier negotiations for the extension of the present England-Tndia mail and passenger service to Calcutta and beyond, but Colonel Shelmerdine’s statement shows that a way round tho difficulty has been invented. Meanwhile. British constructors are gping ahead with tho building of special hign,speed mail-carrying aircraft which could easily operate a regular service all tho way from London to Sydney and Melbourne in a week, should a “mails only” service be decided on to supplement the passenger traffic.

SPEED OF MACHINES Even if the present policy of carrying mails and passengers together in the same machines be continued, however, the airway will still offer immense saving of time over the swiftest steamships. And a point to remember in criticising the British air line, craft on the score of speed is that the present fleet of Imperial Airways, including the now monoplanes Ordered for 11 1 e_ African routes, shows an average cruising speed considerably higher than that of any other European air transport company. The Director of Civil Aviation also referred to the possibilities of a tniiisAtlantie service. He discussed in detail two routes, in the north across southern Greenland, ami in the south by way of Lisbon, the Azores and Bermuda. The immediate possibility Of operating an air service between London and Australia in 72 hours’ elapsed time was emphasised by Air-Commodore J. A. Chamicr in a lecture last week, at the imperial College of Science.