5000-MILE AIRLINES

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19379, 17 July 1937, Page 6

5000-MILE AIRLINES

INDIA’S DEVELOPMENT GOVERNMENT IN CONTROL TRUNK.LINES AND FEEDERS ADVENT OF SEAPLANES

“Remarkable developments which have taken place in Indian Empire aviation during recent years are to be eclipsed in the near future, with the advent of the huge seaplanes now building for Imperial Airways’ use on the England-Australia route,” stated Lieut.-Commander W. 11. Watt, chief aerodrome officer for India, in conversation with a pressman to-day. Lieut.-Commander Watt is spending a furlough in Now Zealand, and passed through the district in the course of his tour, making a stay of only a few hours in Gisborne, and expressing keen interest in the local development of air services and general aviation facilities.

For some years after the Great War he resided in New Zealand, before being called Home to place his experience in connection with lighter-than-air craft at the disposal of the British Government; and in anticipation of the commencement of experimental flights by giant airships over the Eng-land-Australia route, he was dispatched to Karachi to supervise preparations there for the reception of the ships. The tragic crash of the RlOl on the early stages of the first flight to India spelt finis to the projected experiments, and since that time Lieut.-Commander Watt has been concerned with the general equipment and personnel of aerodromes throughout the Indian Empire, under the control of the Indian Government. Three Main Trunk Services The degree to which aviation flourishes in India may be realised from the fact that 5000 miles of airlines are operated on schedule, including, of course, the great trunk lines operated by Imperial Airways, the Dutch K.L.M. Company, and Air France. These trunk services follow the same route through part of the Indian Empire, though the Dutch and French lines omit Delhi, while Imperial Airways naturally include the capital city of the Indian Government in their scope.

Aerodrome provision has been carried to an advanced state in India, and apart from the great ’dromes at Karachi, Jodhpur, Delhi, Allahabad, Cawnpore, Calcutta and Chittagong, at which a 24-hour service is given to the trunk lines, there are large numbers of secondary airports, with regular attendance of officials, though without night-flying facilities, and emergency fields in which machines can get down without trouble.

Night and Day Flying

The development of the 24-hour service on the main aerodromes has proved a most interesting portion of Lieut.-Commander Watt's experiences in laic years, and, discussing this phase of aviation activity in India, he mentioned that it was now possible to throw a switch and’with the one motion set in train the whole of the facilities required for night use of any of the main airports. >.

Another recent development has been the separation of Burma from the Indian Empire in matters of aviation, which has removed from Indian Government control the airports at Akyab and Rangoon. The full effect of the separation will not be felt immediately, but Burma is to exercise independent control in the near future and probably will have the services of officers trained under the Indian system. Training of Ground Personnel At Karachi, the first Indian call on the England-Australia route, and Lieut.-Commander Watt’s headquarters, there is a training school for aerodrome personnel as well as for aviators, and from this school are drafted officers to control the activities over a widely-meshed net of airports throughout India.

The system of control of these airports differs from that adopted on the Empire route between India and England. Whereas the Indian Government provides aerodromes and personnel, the aerodromes west of Karachi are owned by the British Air Ministry, and manned by Imperial Airways’ personnel, a dual-control arrangement which seems to work well, but no better Ilian that adopted for India.

Times are changing in the aviation world, and the advent of the huge (lying-boats of Imperial Airways will mark another stride forward. Already plans are in hand for using conveni-ently-situated inland rivers or lakes as seaplane stations for the great flying-b Oats, and gradually there will be attained an order of things under whieTT "lie Indian Empire will have three flying-boats and two big landplanes (lying in each direction across its mighty expanse every week. For the present, the flying-boats operate only as far as Egypt, but the scheme of development calls for the gradual extension ol' their operations until all India is passing under the keels of the big ships.