Imperial Airways

Aircraft

The mainstay of the early 'Imperial Airways' fleet were the large 'Handley Page' biplanes. These were of two types and all had names bening with'H'. This is a complete listing of them under their type.

An original poster 'Aircraft of Britain's national airline from 1928 to 1939'

Handley Page HP42

Hannibal class 4 1931-40 Hannibal (wrecked 1940), Horsa (impressed 1940), Hanno (wrecked 1940), Hadrian (impressed 1940) (24 passengers) used on long "Empire" routes

G - AAGX  Hannibal  G - AAUC  Horsa  G - AAUD  Hanno  G - AAUE  Hadrian

(above and below) Handley Page H42E. 'Hannibal'

(below) Hanno. 1939

Handley Page HP 45

Heracles class 4 1931-40 Heracles (wrecked 1940), Horatius (wrecked 1939), Hengist (wrecked 1937) and Helena (impressed 1940) (38 passengers) on short "Western" routes, Hengist and Helena converted to H.P.42E.

G - AAXC  Heracles  G- AAXD  Horatius  G - AAXE  Hengist  G - AAXF  Helena  (below) Heracles loading for it's first flight over London   (above) Handley Page H.P.42W/H.P.45. 'Heracles'. The first commercial aircraft in the world to complete one million miles.  (above) Heracles leaving for a trip over London.   (below) Heracles 1936.     (below) Heracles and Horatius.  (below) Horatius G-AAXD  (below) Horatius in tow

(below) Hengist.

AW Argosy Mk.I City class 3 1926-34 City of Birmingham (crashed 1931), City of Wellington (later City of Arundel) (1934), Glasgow (retired 1934)  (above and below) City of Birmingham  (below) AW Argosy 1 'City of Birmingham'in the Silver Wings livery. 1926.  AW Argosy Mk.II  City class 4 1929-35 City of Edinburgh (wrecked 19290, City of Liverpool (wrecked 1933), City of Manchester (sold 1935) and City of Coventry (scrapped 1935)  (above) Armstrong Whitworth Argosy Mk.II. 'City of Manchester'. (below) City of Edinburgh.   (above) City of Edinburgh. November 1929.  (below) City of Liverpool.  (below) City of Coventry. November 1929    Armstrong Whitworth AW15 Atlanta  Atalanta class 8 1932-41 Atlanta (sold), Andromeda (withdrawn 1939), Arethusa (renamed Atalanta), Artemis, Astraea, Athena (burnt 1936), Aurora (sold) and Amalthea (wrecked 1938). For Nairobi-Cape Town leg on South Africa route & Karachi-Singapore leg on Australia route.      (above) AW Atlanta. Prince de Galles 1932. (below) Amalthea.    Armstrong Whitworth Ensign  Ensign class 12 1938-46 Empire type (27 passengers) Ensign, Egeria, Elsinore, Euterpe, Explorer, Euryalus, Echo, Endymion and Western Type (40 passengers) Eddystone, Ettrick, Empyrean and Elysian Everest & Enterprise delivered to BOAC. Intended to deliver 1st-class mail to the Empire by air.  (below) An Ensign landing in 1939.  (above and below) Armstrong Whitworth Ensign  (below) Egeria. 1938.  Avro 618 Ten  1930-38 Achilles (crashed 1938) Apollo (collided with radio mast 1933) licence-built Fokker F.VII 3/m  (above) Avro 618 Ten  Avro 652  1936-38 Avalon and Avatar (later Ava) to RAF in 1938. Prototypes for Anson bomber/trainer  (above) Avro 652  Boulton & Paul P.71A  Bodiciea class 2 1934-36 Bodicea (lost 1935) and Britomart (lost 1936) Experimental mailplanes  (above) Britomart.  (Below) Bodicea        Bristol 62      Bristol 75 Ten-seater  1924-26 G-EAWY, G-EBEV (retired 1925) ex-Instone Air Line used as freighters    (above) Bristol Type 75  Airco DH.34  1924-26 ex-Instone Air Line G-EBBR (wrecked 1924), G-EBBT (scrapped 1930), G-EBBV (scrapped 1926), G-EBBW (scrapped 1926) and ex-Daimler Airway G-EBBX (wrecked 1924), G-EBBY (scrapped 1926), G-EBCX (wrecked 1924)  (above and below) Airco DH34  Airco DH.50  1924-33 G-EBFO (damaged 1924 and sold), G-EBFP (scrapped 1933), G-EBKZ (crashed 1928) G-EBFO used for surveys, later fitted with twin floats and sold in Australia  (above and below) Airco DH50  Airco DH.54 Highclere  1924-27 G-EBKI freighter, destroyed in hangar collapse  (above) Airco 54 Highclere