Short Empire - Service

Service

In February 1937 Caledonia flew from Calshot to Alexandria, Egypt - some 2,500 miles (4,000 km) non-stop showing that Britain could move military materiel to its overseas bases. In 1937 Caledonia was flown experimentally from Foynes on the River Shannon west to Newfoundland while an American Sikorsky S-42 flew the opposite direction. Caledonia took just over 15 hours (including a period looking for landing spot) flying at an altitude of 1,500 to 5,000 ft (460 to 1,500 m) to cover 1,993 miles (3,207 km) - an average speed of about 130 mph (210 km/h). Several more survey flights of the Atlantic were made by Caledonia and Cambria. In August 1937, Cambria made the East-West flight in 14 hrs 24 min. In 1937 Cavalier was shipped to Bermuda and after assembly started a service to New York on 25 May 1937.

After Italy entered World War II in June 1940, it was impossible for mail to be flown between Britain and Egypt (and thus onto Australia) via the Mediterranean. A new "Horseshoe Route" was established that ran from Auckland/Sydney via Cairo (following the old "Eastern Route") to Durban, South Africa, and thence by sea to Britain. This was restricted after the loss of Singapore in February 1942 to being between Durban and Calcutta.