page_title: Romanian air tours over Africa
section_title: Bucharest – Malakal tour
hierarchical_section_title: Romanian air tours over Africa / Bucharest – Malakal tour
caption_attribution_description: English: Participants at the Romanian air raid in Africa, October-November 1933: aviators Dumitru Ploeșteanu, Petre Ivanovici, George Davidescu, Alexandru Cernescu, Maximilian Manolescu and Mihail Pantazi Română: Participanții la raidul aviatic românesc din Africa, oct-nov 1933: aviatorii Dumitru Ploeșteanu, Petre Ivanovici, George Davidescu, Alexandru Cernescu, Maximilian Manolescu și Mihail Pantazi
context_page_description: The Romanian air tours over Africa were a series of trips, called "raids" in Romanian literature, made by the Romanian airmen over Africa between 1933 and 1935, with the purpose of promoting air tourism, Romanian airplanes, as well as Romanian aviation in general. Given global aviation development, exploring its possibilities and setting up aircraft records were an everyday occurrence.
  The one who had the idea of making a major air tour was Lieutenant colonel Alexandru Cernescu, in 1932. A core of aircraft pilots consisting of Alexandru Cernescu and captains George Davidescu and Mihail Pantazi began to organize the air tour. They chose the distance from Bucharest to Cape Town and return to be the route. The first air tour of 1933 did not reach its goal, as it stopped at Malakal. In 1933 and 1935, Gheorghe Bănciulescu also conducted two air tours over Africa, the first to Cairo, over the Near East, returning over North Africa and Italy, and the last exploring the possible air routes over Central Africa. At the beginning of 1935, Irina Burnaia also attempted to cover the route to Cape Town by her own plane, reaching the Victoria Lake.
context_section_description: Three ICAR M23b aircraft of the ARPA, registered as YR-AAP, YR-ABL și YR-ABO, were selected to perform the tour. Through the efforts of the State Undersecretariat for Air, the fuel necessary for the tour was provided by the Astra Română refinery, and delivered by Shell. Shell also provided the documentation: air guides, newsletters and weather forecasts. The aircraft were overhauled and fitted with additional gas tanks providing an 800 km flight autonomy, improved fuel tanks, dust filters for engines. They were supplied with spare parts (even a propeller attached above the posterior fuselage of YR-AAP aircraft, as shown in the picture below) and repair kits, signaling missiles, a first aid kits, food and water supplies, 1: 1,000,000 or 1: 2,000,000-scale maps, papers, even handguns.
  Lieutenant Petre Ivanovici and Max Manolescu, aerobatics pilots and flight instructors at the ARPA piloting school, as well as the aircraft technician Dumitru Ploeșteanu also took part in the team. The crews were distributed as follows: Cernescu and Manolescu on board the YR-AAP, Davidescu and Ivanovici on board the YR-ABL, and Ploeșteanu and Pantazi on board the YR-ABO.
  The planned route of the flight was Bucharest – Istanbul – Eskișehir – Konya – Adana – Aleppo – Gaza – Cairo – Assiut – Assuan – Wadi Halfa – Atbara – Khartum – Kosti – Malakal – Juba – Kisumu – Nairobi – Moshi – Dodoma – Mbeya – Mpika – Broken Hill – Salisbury – Bulawayo – Pietersburg – Johannesburg – Kimberley – Victoria West – Cape Town and return. Some of these customs points were compulsory.
  Climactically, air tours could be organized in March–April or September–October. The air tour started with enough delay, on the 22 October, because Pantazi was ill.
  The one-way air route is marked in red on the map herewith. They passed through the compulsory customs points of Giurgiu, Varna and Istanbul. Because of the bad weather they stopped in Istanbul, where they visited the Galata Tower, the Pera district, Taksim Square, the ruins of the Valens Aqueduct, Hagia Sophia, Topkapı Palace, the Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum, the Military Museum, the Grand Bazaar, different mosques. On 25 October, they could hardly managed to fly over the Taurus Mountains, through a saddle at the height of 1,750 metres, which is the ceiling that loaded aircraft can reach. Then they reached the Mediterranean above Silifke (the old Seleucia). After that they flew over Mersin and had the customs formalities carried out at Adana. After flying around the Gulf of Alexandretta they landed at Aleppo. The following day they took off, flew over Baalbek and the site of the Battle of Qadesh, and stopped over at Rayak Air Base to deliver a message from the French air attaché in Bucharest. They fly through the valley of the Jordan River over Lake Tiberias. After the Dead Sea they turned to Jerusalem and reached Gaza. They entered Egypt through the compulsory customs point of El-Qantarah el-Sharqiyya, and then they landed in Cairo, where they spent three days, overhauling their aircraft and visiting the Pyramids.
  The crew left Cairo on 29 October along the length of the Nile. At Assiut they met Muhammed Taher Pasha, Chairman of the Aero Club of Egypt. They flew over Abydos, the Valley of the Kings, Thebes, Luxor and Karnak and stopped at Assuan. The following day they flew over the first cataract of the Nile, the Philae Island, and hedgehopped over the temples of Ramesses II and Nefertari at Abu Simbel. They entered Sudan and stopped at the customs point of Wadi Halfa. They flew over the second cataract, then cut the meander of the Nile through the desert, along the Wadi Halfa – Abu Hamad railway line up to Railway Station No. 6, where they overnighted. The following day they flew over the fifth cataract, Atbara, and after the sixth cataract they reached Khartum, where they stayed for two days as the engine of Pantazi's aircraft needed overhauling.
  After a short stage to Kosti, they reached Malakal on the 4 November, where they were caught in a torrential rain that deformed the plywood on the wings and empennage. A
caption: Before the flight: Ploeșteanu, Ivanovici, Davidescu, Cernescu, Manolescu, and Pantazi.
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