12 Days Getting to Australia: Good Old Days??!!

For those who might want to complain and/or worry about the long, long distances to reach locations such as southern Africa and/or Australia, this profile and reporting from the London/UK Daily Mail today might offer some "perspective".

They have this part of a headline: "12-day flight to Brisbane in the 1930s to the digital age" with these highlights: "Almost 100 years' worth of rare British Airways maps have been compiled into a fascinating new book. Mapping The Airways reveals the intriguing charts that guided aviators. From early advertisements for routes from London to Paris to state-of-the-art on-board moving maps, the 160-page book reveals 92-years' worth of intriguing aviation history."

This story has this key summary: "This map demonstrates two of the furthest Imperial Airways routes in the 1930s. London to Brisbane, for example, a trip that today takes around 24 hours to complete, took 12 and a half days and stopped off 11 times along the way. Another lengthy trip was London to Cape Town, which took at least nine days - a lot longer than today's 11-hour flight to the South African capital."

Interesting history, background details from an era when virtually none of us on these current Cruise Critic boards would have had to experience. Since the "jet era" arrived in the late 1950's, things have improved significantly!!

Full story at:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-3535971/From-12-day-flight-Brisbane-1930s-digital-age-Fascinating-new-book-traces-rare-British-Airways-route-maps-adverts-going-dawn-aviation.html

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

Enjoyed a 14-day, Jan. 20-Feb. 3, 2014, Sydney to Auckland adventure, getting a big sampling for the wonders of "down under” before and after this cruise. Go to:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1974139

for more info and many pictures of these amazing sights in this great part of the world. Now at 140,408 views for this posting.

Here are a couple of graphics associated with this Daily Mail reporting and the new book out on this era of international flying. First, shows the map, days required and stops in going either to Australia or Cape Town/South Africa. WOW!! That would be lots of flights and stops!! The second graphics shows one of their late 1934 promotional posters and the potential locations that this British airline could reach.:

That's interesting. Thank you for posting it.

Although I'm British, I was born in the Sudan (father a Diplomat) and we came home to live in the UK in 1947.

The flight took ages: Khartoum to Cairo, Cairo to Malta. We stopped overnight in a hotel in Malta. Had to pack toothbrush and PJs in an overnight bag. The checked bags stayed on the aircraft overnight. Next morning, we got back on the plane and flew to London, with an intermediate stop somewhere on the Continent.

I emigrated from the UK to NZ in 1968 and I came by ship - 6+ weeks, with multiple ports on the way. You certainly realised that it was a long way! Now, we can do the journey by air in about 30 hours.

Quite different today. DH hopped on a flight to London last night for work and it will take 24 hours with a quick stop over in Dubai, then he turns around and comes home again on Friday. When he was a kid they went to Europe for a holiday and in the 80's that required a stop in the Phillipines, Pakistan & Germany before reaching the UK.

Although it's a lot better than when my Mother moved to the UK as a child which was 6 weeks by ship, her fathers company paid for him to fly but the wife and kids had to go by boat!

In a similar vein, British Airways is this month celebrating (what it claims to be) the 80th anniversary of its first commercial flight to Hong Kong. That was also a multi-day trip each way, unlike today when I can easily fly out to Hong Kong on Friday night and fly back on Sunday night, getting a weekend there without having to take any time off work.

When I am about 16 hours through the 22 hour flight to Europe I remind myself that it took the early settlers many months to do the trip by sea.

Even our first flight to Europe in 1977 had stops in, I think, Singapore, Bahrain, Vienna and Amsterdam before London. But no security like now, you just got on!