SURVEY BY AIR

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 470, 2 March 1933, Page 3

SURVEY BY AIR

AMBITIOLJS PROJECT GOVERNMENT SEARCH FOR HIDDEN TREASURE j MOOTED. EMPIRE'S UNMAPPED KEGIONS. Sources of wealth hidden in unmapped regions of the Empire will be ■sought systematioally from the air if proposals now under consideration by certain departmentsi of tbe Govemment for the formation of an imperial air survey association be accepted. No detailed maps exist of mueh of the territory under the British flag. Experts declare that up to four-fifths of the Empire is inadequately mapped, if at all. Thus, an ogrnisation designed to cover the Empire- as a whole in a way similar to the operation of the Ordnance Survey Department in this country would be- ia giant task, in which its mainstay and chief hope would be the airborne camera, proved by years of successful survey work in many lands to be easily superior in speed, economy, and certainty to any ground survey system. Aerial photogra-phy does much more than indicate merely the flat details of the- country surveyed; it reveals where rieh mineral deposits may be loeated, where the soil is rnost suitable for cultivation, the zones in which forests should be preserved for commercial or protective purpos-es, the most suitable alignments for roads and railways, and many other facts of immense value to proper government and development. Major H. Hemming, a leading authority on aerial survey, has revealed the existence of this iambitious project. He explains that the proposed - organisation, formed by grouping of the air survey companies, would not be expected to make profits, so a financial plan has been though-t out which would enable the work to be done without support from the Government or from the operating companies themselves. Government control of lany kind is deprecated, beeause much of the experience and high' reputa-tion of the British air survey concerns has been gained in foreign countries — a branch of their activities which might have to be severely curtailed if the Government were known to exercise the final supervision. In the last few years British companies have photographed from the air thousands of square miles of territory in Afriea, Asia, and America. Regions have been mapped in onetenth of tbe time, and at less than one quarter of the cost of survey by ground methods. For example, aeroplanes flying for 1000 hours at heights ranging between 12,000 and 15,000 feet photographed 50,000 square lcilometresi of -the Sudan and Uganda, and maps were delivered in two ' years from the beginning of operations. The quickest, most elahorately organised ground survey would have lasted at least ten years, and at the end would not have produced nearly the mass of detailed information revealed at a gia.nce in the aerial photograph's. No la.-s than 65,000 square miles of Northern Rhodesia, including several townships, were photographed from the air in 18 months. In Burma, India and Brazil important areas have been surveyed; the resultant maps have been used to great effect by geologists, mining engineers, road ' and railway surveyors, taxation auth'orities, and many other departments of State and enterprise. In Oanada vast areas never previously mapped have been photographed and detailed maps prepared. British flying men have always taken much interest in this important branch of aerial activity. Aeroplanes of many different types have been modified for the work, and it wai sj a British constructor who produced the first flying machine designed from start to finish for the nrost efficient execution of aerial survey. This craft, a big twin-engined Gloster biplane, was employed on the Northern Rhodesian job; its large reserve of power, magnificent view in all direction.", and ability to maintain fligbt up to great heights on the power of one engine, made it eminently suitable for flying photography and iat the same time practically immune from any risk of forced landings.