__NOTOC__ The Cairo–Baghdad Air Route was an

airmail Airmail (or air mail) is a mail transport service branded and sold on the basis of at least one leg of its journey being by air. Airmail items typically arrive more quickly than surface mail, and usually cost more to send. Airmail may be th ...

route established by the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

following a

conference A conference is a meeting, often lasting a few days, which is organized on a particular subject, or to bring together people who have a common interest. Conferences can be used as a form of group decision-making, although discussion, not always d ...

of British military and civil officials held in Cairo in March 1921. The aim was to create an air link between

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

Mandate Palestine The Mandate for Palestine was a League of Nations mandate for British administration of the territories of Palestine and Transjordanwhich had been part of the Ottoman Empire for four centuriesfollowing the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in Wo ...

and

British Mandate of Mesopotamia The Mandate for Mesopotamia () was a proposed League of Nations mandate to cover Ottoman Iraq (Mesopotamia). It would have been entrusted to the United Kingdom but was superseded by the Anglo-Iraqi Treaty, an agreement between Britain and Ira ...

(Iraq), which were under British control following the end of World War I. The western end of the route was the airfield at Heliopolis, on the outskirts of

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

. The eastern end was at Hinaidi airfield, just south of

Baghdad Baghdad ( or ; , ) is the capital and List of largest cities of Iraq, largest city of Iraq, located along the Tigris in the central part of the country. With a population exceeding 7 million, it ranks among the List of largest cities in the A ...

. It was intended the route would eventually extend to India and perhaps even to Australia. In 1921 A L Holt was involved with creating the track across the Syrian desert from Baghdad to the eastern edge of the basalt desert in Jordan, which was to act as a guide track for the pilots of the Cairo – Baghdad air route. The route was opened on 23 June 1921 and the first mail from Baghdad destined for London was carried on 28 July 1921 arriving there on 9 August. On 4 August mail was despatched left London arriving in Baghdad on 17 August. The aircraft used were RAF Vickers Vernons, twin-engined biplanes were capable of carrying up to seven passengers and mail, but, for longer endurance, usually carried a smaller load. Initially the price of mail was 1

shilling The shilling is a historical coin, and the name of a unit of modern currency, currencies formerly used in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, other British Commonwealth countries and Ireland, where they were generally equivalent to 1 ...

an ounce, but by December it had been reduced to 6d per ounce and as the route became established this was further reduced to 3d (

old pence The British pre-decimal penny was a denomination of sterling coinage worth of one pound or of one shilling. Its symbol was ''d'', from the Roman denarius. It was a continuation of the earlier English penny, and in Scotland it had the same ...

). The route was 866 miles long but actually between 860 and 870 miles and in the Vernons took an average time of just over twelve hours, excluding stops. The route consisted of two sections. The Western third was about 330 miles from Heliopolis for which five hours of fuel was carried. This section was mostly over the well populated coastal plains between the

Nile The Nile (also known as the Nile River or River Nile) is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa. It has historically been considered the List of river sy ...

and the

Dead Sea The Dead Sea (; or ; ), also known by #Names, other names, is a landlocked salt lake bordered by Jordan to the east, the Israeli-occupied West Bank to the west and Israel to the southwest. It lies in the endorheic basin of the Jordan Rift Valle ...

, where there were plenty of landmarks by which to steer. The Eastern section (540 miles) was over the Jordanian and Iraqi deserts, uninhabited except for nomadic tribes and with few landmarks. A visible track over this part of the route was laid across the ground by the wheels of an armoured car driven for this purpose, or by a plough pulled by a

Fordson tractor Fordson was a brand name of tractors and trucks. It was used on a range of mass-produced general-purpose tractors manufactured by Henry Ford & Son Inc from 1917 to 1920, by Ford Motor Company (U.S.) and Ford Motor Company Ltd (U.K.) from 1920 t ...

, depending upon the nature of the terrain. 26 emergency landing grounds were made in the desert, several of which included spare tanks of fuel. De Havilland Hercules

In 1926

Imperial Airways Imperial Airways was an early British commercial long-range airline, operating from 1924 to 1939 and principally serving the British Empire routes to South Africa, India, Australia and the Far East, including Malaya and Hong Kong. Passengers ...

took over the route from the RAF. Using three-engined

de Havilland Hercules The de Havilland DH.66 Hercules was a British 1920s seven-passenger, trimotor airliner built by de Havilland Aircraft Company. With the Hercules, Imperial Airways took over responsibility for the airmail service from the Royal Air Force, wh ...

aircraft of greater range than the Vernons, the route was extended first to

Basra Basra () is a port city in Iraq, southern Iraq. It is the capital of the eponymous Basra Governorate, as well as the List of largest cities of Iraq, third largest city in Iraq overall, behind Baghdad and Mosul. Located near the Iran–Iraq bor ...

and then to

Karachi Karachi is the capital city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Sindh, Pakistan. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, largest city in Pakistan and 12th List of largest cities, largest in the world, with a popul ...

in India, a distance of 2,500 miles, as part of an air passenger service.

References

Sources

*''The Baghdad Air Mail'', Roderick Hill, Edward Arnold and Co, London 1929. (Republished 2005 by Tempus/Nonesuch, ) *
British Air Policy between the Wars 1918 – 1939
', H Montgomery Hyde, Heinemann, London 1976, SBN 434 47983 7

External links

from the

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archive {{DEFAULTSORT:Cairo-Baghdad air route Airmail

See also

References

Sources

External links