A pre-war route map of the Royal Airmail Carrier, Qantas Empire Airways, Ltd. A somewhat-complex array of route indications, for both the company's own air routes as well as that of other air companies, shows the system stretching to four continents, with the Americas absent. The trans-Indian route to Johannesburg connects with an Imperial spine across Rhodesia, East Africa and the Sudan to Cairo, from where the network merges with routes via India, then crossing Europe to terminate at London.
Closer to home, two northern lines, one touching Hong Kong, the other Manila, bank across the Orient to end at Tokyo. At far right, a web of island-hoppers fan out from Sydney to New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Fiji, with lines of a different marking running across the Tasman Sea between Sydney, Melbourne and New Zealand.
I am now a little puzzled by this map. It shows, I think, a Qantas route from Sydney-Perth across to Jo’burg via the Cocos Islands and Mauritius. But I thought this route was first established in the late 1940s by Qantas. As I can't read the keys to the routes (solid, dashed, dotted) etc. do you have any more information on why this route would be on a Qantsa map from the 30s? Thanks.
ReplyDelete1953 , DC - 7B, was the first route an this map. Mauritius to Coco, 12 Hours ? in time table.
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