Danish inter - war flight Karachi

[one11]

This photo was with others taken at RAF Drigh Road Karachi in the 1920s/30s and shows a Danish Air Force Fokker C.IV or similar named Danmark. Trawling Fokker and Danish Aviation history websites has not come up with a date or final destination of this flight, Another from the collection shows a similar Fokker flown by Major Zanni of the Argentine Air Force, as below, about which more information was available.. His July 1924 flight from Amsterdam was aiming for Tokyo as part of a round-the-world attempt but crashed in Hanoi Vietnam but Zanni continued to Tokyo in a replacement Fokker seaplane but abandoned the round the world attempt at that point. I would like to find out the date of the Danish flight and whether its destination was also further east.

[Beamr]

In march - june 1926 captain Botved flew Copenhagen - Tokyo - Copenhagen via British East Indies in a C.V.
Source: page 6 of https://rclibrary.co.uk/files_titles/2188/Profile_087_Fokker_CV.pdf

There is a story of the flight, too (see link underneath with a picture of cpt Botved with either of the planes, I'd say similar to the ac on the OP picture). To make it short: there were two planes named R1 and R2 with two pilots (cpt A.P Botved in R1 and lt. H. Herschend in R2). In the picture is R1 apparently with cpt Botved.
- left Klövermarken airport in Copenhagen 16th March 1926
- reached Calcutta March 28th.
- Left Calcutta for Rangoon 3rd April.
- R2 force landed 45km from Rangoon
- R1 continued to Bangkok April 4th
- April 10th to Hanoi
- Arrival to Tokyo June 1st.
- Cpt Botved left Tokyo June 15th and headed to Copenhagen via Siberia and Russia, Arriving in Copenhagen on 23rd June.
http://www.fipaero.org/exhibiting/co...12/May2012.pdf

I'd reckon your picture is from this trip, definately somewhere in between 16th March (Copenhagen) and 28th March (Calcutta) 1926, most likely in between 20th and 27th March, someone in the know might be able to estimate the transition times more accurately.

[one11]

This forum does it again! All the information I needed within 24 hours. Thanks Beamr

[Beamr]

Coming back to this as this cpt Botved's flight seems to have been a rather renown journey at the time with quite some news coverage even in Australia:

in The Herald (Melbourne) on 17th March 1926 was a news article with headline:
COPENHAGEN TO TOKIO - Flight in 400h.p. Fokker
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/a...rchTerm=botved

I did find an article placed to Karachi on 30th March stating that Botved has left for Agra ( https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/a...rchTerm=botved ) . So theres some proof for the timeline of the OP's picture.

Now this is what puzzles me, an article dated on 27th March stating they arrived on 26th somewhere (to my eye it looks like Bushire) leaving the next day for something else. What is this place, and what is the place they left to? Because this narrows down the OP's photo date in between 28th and 30th based on the articles.
BUT: considering it was 100 years ago, the news weren't distributed the same second things happened. It is in conflict with other sources. So what is this place and is it before or after Karachi...



The journey was also mentioned in The Labour Daily newspaper in Sydney on 1st June 2026, and in all its simplicity the article stated
BOTVED STILL FLIES ON
(Reuter.) OSAKA. Monday.
The Danish aviator, Captain Botved arrived here at 12.7 p.m.
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/a...87099/25633871

The flight was so popular that there was a stamp on the occasion, too:
https://colnect.com/en/stamps/stamp/...istory-Denmark




And digging further, some people obviously remember it still as two years ago someone has made a game of cpt Botveds flight!
https://apk.tools/details-botved-apk/

[Brighton Nil]

Hi, Beamr.
I spent some of my apprenticeship in the Persian Gulf and seem to remember both Bushire and a place called Bandar Abbas.
James

[Beamr]

Originally Posted by Brighton Nil

Hi, Beamr.
I spent some of my apprenticeship in the Persian Gulf and seem to remember both Bushire and a place called Bandar Abbas.
James

ah, yes, thank you, it makes sense now. Leaving on the morning of 27th towards Bandar Abbas what would be modern day Iran. If arriving there on 27th, most probably continuing on 28th towards Karachi. If there was yet another stop (refuel, overnighting etc) prior to Karachi the OP's picture would be on 29th or 30th march early morning (based on articles).