NEW AIR LINK FORGED

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 632, 8 April 1929, Page 9

NEW AIR LINK FORGED

MAIL PLANE REACHES .KARACHI RETURN FLIGHT STARTED British Official Wireless Reed. 11.40 a.m. RUGBY, To-day. i India received her first air mail from England yesterday. Thus the great enterprise which was launched at Croydon a week ago is no longer merely an ambitious scheme but an accomplished fact. The last stage was the flight of S4O miles from the Persian Gulf to Karachi, where the airplane arrived only 13 hours late, despite having been delayed by a sandstorm after leaving Bagdad. The second weekly air mail service to India began yesterday morning. The machine which left Croydon carried a larger quantity of mail than the machine, which started on March 30. There was also more freight. To-day the first air mail to England left Karachi, and by it travelled Air Vice-Marshal Sir Geoffrey Salmond, Air Officer Commanding in India, and Viscount Chetwynd, chairman of the Imperial Airways. London is due to be reached next Sunday. LONDON TO KHARTOUM JOURNEY IN SIX DAYS SIR. S. HOARE’S FLIGHT British Official Wireless Reccl. 11.40 a.m. RUGBY, Sunday. Sir Samuel Hoare, Secretary for Air, arrived yesterday at Khartoum. The journey from England occupied only six days. Sir Samuel left London last Saturday by the new Indian air service. He left the air liner at Alexandria and proceeded to the Sudan by service airplane. He will go as far southwards as time permits to inspect the projected route for the new air service from Cairo to Capetown. He will fly back to London in time for the reassembly of Parliament on April 15.