TRAVEL BY AIR

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 491, 27 March 1933, Page 3

TRAVEL BY AIR

LONG DISTANCE AND PRIVATE FLIGHTS BECOMING POPULAR. REMOVAL OF REST'RICTIONS. During the last few months one side of air tnavel has madei great progress. It is that of long business and private journeys, including "air taxi" flights of 1000' to 2000 miles, and the special hirin'g of aircraft by people who can fly, but do not own an aeroplane (writes Major C. C. Turner in th'e London Daily Telegraph). The facilities are rapidly being improved by the special attention given to this new and previously little explored field by the Automobile Association and the Roya.l Aero Club. Imperial Airwayis, National Flying Services, Captain W. L. Hope, Inland Flying Services, and a score of companies, large and small, execute commissions of this kind. The desire for faist and wide travel has led.to a demand for the removal of red-tape delays and restrictions, and has brought a new spirit into international travel. Departments which appear to have specialised as obstacledefenders are now realisimg that their duty is to smooth the way for the high-speed traveller. Foreign Officei, under pressure, are heginning to exert themselves to fciis end; but much remains to be done. The Custom Houses at Croydon and Heston, the map and camet departments of the Aero Club and the A.A. bear witnesis to the increase of air travel over long distanees by people who are not concerned with recordbreaking. To the big business man time is money; but, in fact, in many cases, there is by air an actual saving of travelling expenses, and this will be more common ;ai3> the facilities improve and the business grows. The air routes to the Sudan and East Africa are well flown, not only by their own or specialy-hired aircraft. In Kenya there are many owner-pilots who have their own aerodromes.

Saving of Time. Government officials returning home on leave from Equatorial Africa, and going back to duty, save in some cases a fortni'ght each way. Officers in the Sudan with a month's leave to spend in Uganda, by using the air lin'e between KhaiToum and Juba, take two days, thus saving about three weeks' travelling by river. There is a constant, if tihin, stream of air traffic to and from India, and private flights to Australia are no longer uncommon. This year two officens of the Australian Navy, Lieutenant R. Allen and Commander G. A. Hall, separately flew home to Australia. Mr. E. Gandar Dower and Mr. A. C. S. Irwin, hotlf pilots, have just flewn out to Bombay. BrigadierGeneral H. C. Lewin, soon after qualifyipg for his cei-tiflcate, flew to his place in Kenya and back. An American business man, Mr. Sharpiles, visiting Eiurope on business., hired an aeroplane at Heston, and pilotted it, first to Copenhagen, then to Paris, and afterwards to the West of England. He crowdeid ia lot of business into five days, and, moreover, saved travel money. Miss Joan Page and Miss Durelle Sale-Barker recently arrived at Johannesburg on a p'leasure flight. Miss Page was the first Englishwoman to get a flying certifieate in India, and she is- a professional pilot. Miss Winifred Spooner, another professional ■pilot, was with a party, including Mr. Lindsay Everard, M.P., Mr. W. D. Macpherson, and Mr. J. Wilson Fox, who, on two miaichines, spent a holiday in Palestine and Persia, with a maximum of visiting and a minimum of was'ted time on travelling. Many more examples could be igiven. Two, of a novel character, to distant islands of the United Kingdom, should be mentioned. The Hon. iG. Cunliffe, with Mr. Coupland (pilot) flew the otlfer day from Heston to Jslay, twen-ty-five miles out frofn the North of Ireland, and Flight-Lieutenant D. V. Ivins habitually flies to and fro between Heston and the island of Jersey.