Political (External) Collection 5: Aircraft and Aviation

This collection contains departmental correspondence and papers regarding aircraft and aviation policy in the Persian Gulf, the Middle East, Arabia and Central Asia. This includes the development of civil aviation routes, the provision of military facilities, and assistance with the development of foreign air forces. Broadly speaking they cover the following topics:. Afghanistan: Development of civil aviation; Afghanistan: Afghan Air Force (provision of training by British instructions and the sale of British aircraft); Air Route to India: Shift from the northern to southern shore of the Persian Gulf; Bilateral aviation agreements; German aviation: Developments in Persia and Afghanistan; International aviation: Developments in global civil air agreements; Persian Gulf: Provision of facilities for civil and military aircraft; Persian Gulf: Meteorological stations; Persian Gulf States: Air Agreements; United States: Provision of facilities of the US Air Transport Command during the Second World War (1939-1945); Proposals for the development of post-war civil aviation; Violations of foreign territory by British aircraft; The vast majority of the content of this sub-sub-series is in English. However, individual files may contain some papers in Arabic, French, or Persian. Further information can be found in the file level descriptions.

The Aircraft and Aviation files are arranged by collection, file and (sometimes) part number, by which, for example the reference Coll 5/15 (1) is composed of the collection reference 5 (Aircraft and Aviation), the file number 15 (Afghanistan: Violations of the Afghan Frontier), and the part number 1.

Unrestricted

This collection was maintained through the closure of the India Office and the establishment of the Commonwealth Relations Office. A small number of files in this collection were therefore created by the latter.