In addition to the models shown on the stand there is an illuminated glass map on which the routes covered regularly by the RAF. aircraft are illustrated pictorially. Four thousand electric bulbs light up the different routes in succession.
The route between Ismalia and Darwin, along which the flight of three Vickers Wellesley aircraft recently out-distanced "the existing world's non-stop flight record, is picked out in red lights. The map indicates the routes spreading out from the Mother Country to Canada, South' Africa, India and the Northwest Frontier, Hongkong, Australia and New Zealand. The R.A.F. aerodromes are indicated in red and the Dominion Air Force centres in green.
There are also charts and diagrams depicting the growth of the Royal Air Force, These show that the number of pilots and airmen has grown from 31,200 in 1935, to 74,400 in October, 1938, and by next June there will be a strength of about 100,000 men.
In first line aircraft, the number has already been increased from 1015 in 1935 to a figure well in excess of 2,000. The expenditure over the same period has grown from £27,500,000 to £126,000,000, while the estimated expenditure for 1939 is £200,000,000.
Sir Kingsley Wood, the Secretary of State for Air, will visit the Exhibition on December 3.—Wireless through Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.