The Air Ministry has also issued an exhaustive survey of the work accomplished in East Africa in the field of aviation. Three thousand workers have built 162 aviation fields which sre sprinkled all over the empire. Eighty hundred mechanics and motor specialists keep aeroplanes in tip-top condition in Africa. The number of planes at present in Ethiopia is not revealed, however.
During the past year, the Air Minister, Signor Benito Mussolini has sel an example for civil pilots by making 29 fights totalling 41 flying hours. The longest of these flights was on August 18, when Il Duce flew his three engined S-81 to the fortified Island of Pantelleria, half way between Sicily and Africu, where he inspected me naval base, the airfield and the heavy fortifications of the strategic island. This flight took four hours and 45 minutes.
The Premier's shortest flight during the past year was on June 9, when he took a 20 minute training flight from Forli to Ravenna—United Press.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.