Twenty Thousand Miles in a Flying Boat - Tapa blanda

Alan Cobham was an aeronautical daredevil before they even coined the phrase. Soon after the First World War, he mustered out of the Royal Air Force and set off to make history with “one aeroplane, one hammer, some copper wire, a tank full of petrol, and a few shillings”. Cobham began by flying over a war-weary England, but soon set his sights abroad. In 1921 he flew over Europe for three weeks, noting that the air was so clear that he could see for 200 miles in any direction. In 1924 he made history again by being the first person to fly from his British base to India, and back, a fact not to be believed in those innocent days. In 1924 Cobham declared that he was tossing caution to wind. He proposed to command one of the new experimental “Flying Boats” around the entire perimeter of the African Continent. Keeping in mind that this was in the days of the Imperial British Raj, the English airman planned on making the entire trip by landing only in British colonies situated along the coast of Africa. The resultant journey changed aerial history and proved that air travel was no longer merely exotic, but immensely achievable.