DUTCH AIR LINES

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 412, 22 December 1932, Page 2

DUTCH AIR LINES

THE K.L.M. COMPANY POWBROFUL MACHINES ON EAST INDIES SERVICE. PIONEERINGr AIR TRAVEL. (Specially Written for the "Morning Post") ... The Dutch air line concern KoninklijWe Luchtvaart Maatschappaj voor Nederland en Eolonien N.V., was founded in October 1919 by an influential group of banking, commercial and shipping house's. The compJtny's capital has been'increased from.time to time and at the moment stands at Fl. 10,000,000. Its head offiee it situated at Hofweg 9, The Hague (Holland). The company's machines operate on the following services : — London-kottsrdam-Amsterdam-Han-over-Berlin. Daily serviee — Sundays excepted — in each direetion in conjunction with the Deutsehe Luft Hansa. London-Rotterdam-Amsterdam. Daily Serviee — Sundays included — — in 'each' direetion. This .serviee continues to Bremen, Hamburg, Copenhagen, Matnio, in conjunction with A/B Aero Transport a^gd Deutsehe Luft Hanas, and is called "The Scandinavin Air Express," connecting London with Malmo in 9£ hours. Paris, Brussels, Antwerp, Rotterdam Amsterdam. This serviee is called "The Amsterdam Air Express" and is run several times ievery weelc-day in conjunction with the Prench Company, 'Farman and S.A.B.E.N.A. (The Belgian Company). Amsterdam-Batavia. Via Nurnberg, Budapest, Athens, Mersa, Matruh, Cairo, Baghdad, Bushire, Jask, Karachi, Johpur, Allahabad, Caleutta, Akyab, Rongoon, Alor Star, Bangkok Medan, Palembang, Batavia, Bandoeng.

This was started as a fortnightly Serviee, but from the 1st October, 1931, it became a we'ekly one. It is scheduled to occupy 12 days' time and leaves Amsterdam every Thursday, and Batavia every Friday. Large Staff. The K.L.M. has a flying staff of 24 pilots, and 30 flight mechanics. Its routes cover a distanee of approximately 10,000 miles. The following figures are availahle for the year 1930 ' showing the K.L.M's traffic: First Flights. Although the first flight from Amsterdam to Batavia was not aecomplished until November, 1924, during the four or five years previous to this event plans for connecting Holland by air, with her colonial possessions in the Far East were made time and again, but plans tbey remained, for although well-directed, they were impracticable. Politieal and financial difficulties provided th'e chief causes of the continued ahandonment of the attempt to fiy from Amsterdam to Batavia. Between the years 1919 to 1922 no less than six proposals were mooted, and it was not until the beginning of 1923 that a definite plan was formulated and a committe, entitled "The Hol-land-Dutch East Indies Flight Committee, appointed. In July of that year the Dutch press published particulars of the undertaking and a public subscription produced an amount of Fls. 80,000. Unfortunately it was announced that the single-en-gined Fokker F.YII machine which was to have been used, could not be finisbed before April 1924, and the Dutch Government announced at the same time that they could not give financial support to the venture. It was not until October that three Dutch aviators, Yan Der Hoop, Van W'eerden Poelman and Van den Broeke were able to leave Holland. On approaching Turkey the machine made a forced landing at Ph(ilippopolis, in which the damage sustained was so great that a fresh start, with the same machine and crew, was not madle until November. Dn this occasion a Dutch periodical, "Het Leven," offered a Rolls Royce engine costing Fls. 12,000 and further financial support was obtained through press appeals. On the 2nd November, 1924, Van der Hoop left Pilipp'opolis, and arrived at Batavia on the 24th. The return flight was started on the 17th Decemher and Amsterdam reached on the 28th. During the following year four outward and two return flights from Holland to the Dutch East Ind'ies were undertaken by the K.L.M. for the main purpose of flying out new triple-engined Fokker machines destined for .their sister company, the K.N.I.L.M., which was running serviees between Sourabaya, Batavia, Palembang and Singapore. When these machines had heen delivered, politieal difficulties prtevented further flights being undertaken until September, 1929, when seven return flights were madle between this tate and January, 1930, with the help of the Dutch Government who by then had realised that regular communication by air between Holland and her wealthy East Indian colonies was po,ssible, and a subsidy was granted which made it possible for a regular fortnightly air mail serviee to be started in September, 1930. This has heen maintained without intierruption to the present day, and on the 1st October, 1931, a weekly serviee was instituted. The ground organisation, when thesie flights were originally undertaken, left much to be desired and the

condition of the aerodromes rendered them frequently unsuitable for landing Kokker aircraft. Shell provided the K.L.M. with information about the condition of the landing- fields and they helped the crews of their machniWsheen crews of their machines when they landed, in overcoming the many formalities that had to be gone through, and finally they supplied their fuiel requirements in a manner that was •surprisngly efficien't, considering the rudimentary means at their disposal. To the Indies. During 1925 a new plan for a world flight touching the Dutch East Indies was discussed, but eventualliy dropped. In 1926 a single-engined Fokker F.VII, a machine chartered by the "Holland-Dutch East Indies Flight Committee" from the Koninklijke Luchtvaat Mattschappi (Royal Dutch Air Lines) that had been maintaining air-services between Amsterdam, Rotterdam and London, was flown on a serviee to Marseilles to connect wtih the Dutch mail steamers to the East Indies, and when, at the beginning of 1927, ^consideration was being given to extlending this serviee to Suez, an unexpected event took place. The late Mr. Van Lear Black, a wealthy American newspapter owner with interests in most of the business ccntrss of the world, who for the purpose of making private flights had chartered a machine from the K.L.M., asked his pilots if they would care to make an attempt to fly to America via Iceland, Greenland and Labraclor. However, this was found to be impracticable, so it was decided that a flight should be made to the Dutch East Indes. On June 15 the same machine that had been operating the serviee to Marseilles left Amsterdam with Messrs. Geysendorffer and Scholte as pilots, Mr. Weber as mechanic and Mr. Van Lear Black with his velet as passengers. The flight took 16 days, the machine Teaching Batavia on June 20. The return journey was started on July 6 and the machine landed at Amsterdam at the 23rd. This successful flight to Batavia had a tremendous effect on th'e flying public. Captain Koppen, an instruetor of the Dutch Military Aviation Department, who in the last five years had repeatedly had his plans for a flight from Amssterdam to Batavia frustrated, eventually left Holland on the 1st October, 1927, in a tripl'eengined Fokker accompanied by a copilot and mechanic. The flight created a long distanee record, the machine reaching Batavia on th'e 10th October.