مجموعة ٥/٧٣ "سلاح الجو الأفغاني: تقارير" [و‎‎٦‎٩] (٤٣١/١٣٧)

-Arp. 1 (::) contcU
XXX •
4
Tne present privets Russian air service froiii Tashkent
to Kabul nas toe use of tne Siierpur airfield for its
aircraft wnich noxmaliy make the journey every 10 or 14 oays.
Recently the obsolete P.5 aircraft on this service nas been
making the trip less frequently, and according to rumour tne
Russians intend to place a Douglas C.3. aircraft into
commission and use the Khwaja Ra.wash airfield. Tne i.fgnan
Govt do not at present allow Russian aircraft to purchase
aviation petrol from them or permit aircraft to land
places other tioa.n Ka.bul or allow the Russians to maintain
ground staffs in Ka.bul or elsewhere. The whole object of | r
the Afghan Govt being apparently to keep the Russians in tne
air since they fea.r that the establishment of grouna stalls
at Mazar-i-Sharif, Kha.nabad or Ka^bul would lead to a^ spread
of Russian propaganda and communistic doctrines in^the country
Whatever'developments do eventually occur in the
field of civil a.via.tion in Afghanistan they cannot be witnout
some effect on the Afghan air force. Should for example an
American, British. French or Italian controJ-led civil otir
service be established from V/est to East it will involve
the nuaintenance of grouno. sta.ffs, workshops, radio location
and W/T instaJ-lations etc. at places like Herat, Kanaanai ^
or Kabul and one country providing these facilities for civil
aviation would gradually a.cquire an influence in one Afghan
air force through tne presence in toe country of its aircraxt,
]j ground personneh*workshops ano insta.llations etc.
i There would also oe a tendency foi' Afgha-nistan to purchase
her military aircraft from the country which provides her
with a civil air service or is jointly concerned with the
Afghan Govt in providing such a service. All existing
airfields in Afghanistan are controlled by the Ministry ox
Defence, and there are no airfields allotted to civil use
at present.
Append!* A. to this report gives the number and
condition of aircraft and the number of tra.ined or partly
trained pilots in the Afghan Air Force on 31st October 1944*
Hin d S quadro ns..
(a) Flying hours . e . ^ n -
Since the Independence Generations at the enu or
July flying training has been deduced zo a minimum.
Pilot: have been limited to 3 or 4 short flights each of
10 to 15 minutes duration per month.
(b) Sta ndard of flying efficiency. . ,
There has been no improvement owing to the drastic
curtailment of f3.ying training.
(c) Operations. . ^
No active operations nave been carried out ? but*
the following reconnaissance flights were made during
tne quarter:- ^ ^
(l) Xbvo Hind aircraft from Ka.bul proceeded to Knost
on 28tn August. One aircraft returned after two houis,
a.na txie otxier force landed at katun owing to oil lea.king
from Xhe exiiaust pipes due to bad maintenance.
(11)Two Hind aircraft flew to Khost on 29th August
with spares for the aircraft which force landed at Matun
on the previous day. These aircraft plus the one wiiich
he.d force landed^returned to Ka.bul at 4 pm on the same day.
(Ill) On 9th October two Hind aircraft from Kabul
visited Khost and returned the same day after an absence
of two hours.