Location
A recently discovered map in the Public Records Office in Kew showing all the proposed Imperial Air Routes has uncovered some interesting, unknown finds. The map is dated “Air Routes 1931” but it is suspected that this is a future proposal of sites, probably issued around August or September 1930, before the loss of the R101 and when many decisions had been made regarding the next phase of the Airship Programme.
Mast proposal
On of the locations which was shown was the proposal of a mast in Colombo, then part of what was known as Ceylon, now Sri Lanka. The mast is in a strategic location on the route down to Australia. Nothing more is known of the proposed Colombo mast; however, it is quite likely that with the expansion of the route to Australia, the mast could service those airships travelling down from India, to Perth in Australia, as it sits on a geographic line directly southeast connecting those locations.
Ceylon, at the time, was also an important communications/trading partner of the British Empire.