GREAT DEVELOPMENT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 August 1942, Page 2

GREAT DEVELOPMENT

OF EMPIRE AIR SERVICES ANTICIPATED AFTER WAR VIEWS OF SIR KEITH SMITH. NEED OF PLANNING NOW. (Special Australian Correspondent.) (Received This Day, 10.10 a.m.) SYDNEY, This Day. “At all costs Empire air routes must: be maintained,” declared Sir Keith Smith, the aviation pioneer, and Australian representative of Vickers Ltd., “and new Empire air routes should be established. I endorse the recent suggestions by Mr Fysh and Captain Taylor for a trans-lndian ocean service, linking Nev/ Zealand, Australia and England.”

Unless we . aroused ourselves from our present apathy, Sir Keith Smith continued, the Empire might be unable to meet the post-war requirements of civil aviation. After the war air travel would exceed in popularity all other modes of transport. Sydney to London and Sydney to San Francisco journeys would be shortened to three or four days. A huge commercial fleet of aircraft would be required and the planning should begin now. In Australia hundreds of splendid aerodromes were being laid down and these presented a magnificent post-war chance to develop the interior of the continent, since air routes would bring the most isolated localities within a few hours flying time of the big cities.