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Beyond The Blue Horizon

Alexander Frater loves flying. In 1986 he published Beyond the Blue Horizon; the story of a journey following the route of Imperial Airways from London to Brisbane stopping in over 20 places. The 22 hour modern journey used to take closer to 14 days in the 1920's and 1930's. It stopped in cities and deserts. The travellers stayed in hotels and forts, they took four different types of aircraft.

Part 1

London, Cairo, Alexandria

The twenty-two hour flight from the UK to Australia may seem like a long journey in the last few rows of a 747 jet. In the 1930’s the trip took almost two weeks by air, flying only by day. The London to Brisbane route was flown by Imperial Airways in the years between the wars and is recalled by travel writer Alexander Frater. In the first of three programmes about the Imperial route, there are memories of flying boats on the Nile, an argument that aviation began two thousand years ago in Egypt, delays, lost tempers and exasperation for the modern airline passenger.

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Part 2

Mumbai, Jodphur

From Cairo Alexander Frater and I flew to Mumbai to interview the former Chief Pilot of Air India; the first man to fly a Boeing 747 into Bombay. Then to Jodhpur to talk to the great aunt of the present Maharaja. The first Maharaja opened the first Jodhpur Flying Club. Finally, when we meet the most senior cabin crew of Air India, they told us about the horror of air accidents.

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Part 3

Longreach, Sydney, Brisbane

George Roberts built his first aeroplane soon after the Wright brothers first flew. He has known all the important aviators in Australian history and recalls the development of flying in Australia in this last programme following the 1930’s Imperial Airlines route from Croydon to Brisbane. On the way travel writer Alexander Frater visits Longreach in the Australian Outback where the commercial air services began in Australia.

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The Holiday Show BBC Radio Ulster 1995/1996

Boston - Available MP3

Istanbul - MP3 or Windows

Guernsey - MP3 or Windows

Copenhagen - MP3 or Windows

Cluny - Download MP3

Galicia - MP3/Windows

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Phuket to Singapore
Download MP3 Here