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creating a company which would be strong enough to develop Britain's external air services. As a result, agreement was made between the President of the Air Council and the British, Foreign and Colonial Corporation on the 3rd of December 1923 for the company, under the title of the 'Imperial Air Transport Company' to acquire existing air transport services in the UK. The agreement set out the government subsidies for the new company: £137,000 in the first year diminishing to £32,000 in the tenth year as well as minimum mileages to be achieved and penalties if these weren't met. Out of this company Imperial Airways Limited was formed on the 31st of March 1924 with equipment from each contributing concern: British Marine Air Navigation Company Ltd, the Daimler Airway, Handley Page Transport Ltd and the Instone Air Line Ltd. Sir Eric Geddes was appointed the chairman of the board with one director from each of the merged companies.Imperial Airways Limited was formed on the 31st of March 1924 and on the 1st of April 1924 it took over the aircraft and services of: Handley Page Transport Limited Fleet: Three Handley Page W8B's - 'Princess Mary', 'Prince Henry' and 'Prince George'. Fleet: Vickers Vimy Commercial - 'City of London', and four de Havilland DH 34's. Fleet: Three de Havilland DH 34's. Limited Fleet: Two Supermarine Sea Eagle amphibian flying boats. |
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As the name 'Imperial Airways' implied, the organisation had been formed to cast its eyes on more distant horizons than the boundaries of Europe. It was charged with the task of pioneering a chain of long-distance intercontinental air services linking the countries of the British Empire with each other and with the United Kingdom. Between the two World Wars it achieved that aim. The start of the Empire routes occurred when surveys of the Cairo-Karachi air route had been completed by the 1st of October 1925. In 1926 there was a large increase in the company's fleet: A Handley Page W9 'City of New York', and four Handley Page W10s 'City of Melbourne', 'City of Pretoria', 'City of London' and 'City of Ottawa' were all christened at Croydon airport on the 31st of March. On the 16th of July the new Armstrong Whitworth Argosy, the airline's first three-engined airliner which introduced a new standard of roominess into air passenger flying came into service. On the 1st of May 1927, an Argosy inaugurated the world's first 'named' air service - it was the London-Paris 'Silver Wing' service on which meals were served. (Other European routes on which 'Argosie's operated were those to Basle, Brussels and Cologne.) On the 20th of December the first of the de Havilland Hercules airliners (ordered by Imperial Airways for service on overseas routes) left England for their new route from Egypt to India. In January 1927 a service was opened between Cairo and Basra, in the Persian Gulf. To solve the difficulty of navigating across the trackless desert between Palestine and Baghdad, a furrow, several hundred miles long, was ploughed in the sand. It was probably the longest furrow ever ploughed. Further links were added at either end of the route and on the 30th of March 1929 the Short Calcutta (which was the first of Imperial Airways' flying boats to be built in 1928, designed to operate the Mediterranean sectors of the long-distance routes from the United Kingdom to Australia and South Africa), left London for Karachi on the first through air service between the United Kingdom and India. Later in the same year this route was extended to Jodhpur and Delhi. On the 16th of June 1930, an internal service linking London, Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool was run three times a week. This service connected with European services at Croydon and continued until 20th September when a lack of support closed the route. In April 1930 the surveys of the Cairo-Cape Town route were completed, and on the 28th of February 1931 the first part of this route was opened with a weekly service between London and M'wanza in Tanganyika. Calcutta flying boats were used on the trans-Mediterranean section and south along the Nile from Cairo. On the 1st of April 1931, the first experimental London-Australia air mail flight took place. The mail was transferred to an Australian aircraft at Koepang in the Netherlands East Indies, and it arrived on the 29th of April in Sydney. |
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In 1931, two types of four-engined airliner came on to the scene. The 27th of April saw the first of three Short flying-boats, 'Scipio', which worked in the Mediterranean, whilst the first of the Handley Page H.P. 42s, 'Hannibal', operated on the London-Paris route for the first time on the 11th of June. Two classes of H.P. 42 were made. The 'Heracles' class for European routes, with 38 seats, were based at Croydon, and the 'Hannibal' class for routes in Egypt, India, and Central Africa, with 24 seats (to allow for extra fuel and baggage), were based at Cairo. These airliners brought a new standard of service, comfort, and safety to passengers. Stewards served full course meals, the Pullman style upholstery was unrivalled, and even though each of the eight built flew over a million miles, no passenger was ever hurt. On the 20th of January 1932, the England-Central Africa service was extended to the Cape for the carriage of mail. Passengers first left London by air for South Africa on the 27th of April. In 1933 the Armstrong Whitworth AW15 Atalantas was introduced. It was the first monoplane ordered by Imperial Airways and offered the first significant increase in airliner cruising speed since 1919, cruising at 130 mph. It was described as 'the fastest and most luxurious aircraft designed and produced for the tropics, with ample room for passengers to walk about and chat and to enjoy refreshments'. The type operated from Central Africa to Cape Town and east of Karachi, as the service was extended to Calcutta on the 6th of July, Rangoon on the 23rd of September and Singapore on the 9th of December. 1933 also saw Imperial Airways complete 10,000,000 miles of flying. |
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On the 18th of January 1934, the formation of Qantas Empire Airways Limited took place, which combined the interests of Imperial Airways and Qantas (Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services Limited). The object was to operate in association with Imperial Airways on the Trans-Australian route. The 8th of December saw the London-Singapore route extended to Brisbane for mail, the Singapore-Brisbane section operated by Qantas Empire Airways. Passengers were carried over the entire England-Australia route from April 1935. The operation of the Singapore-Brisbane section of the Australia route led to a new airliner which would be suitable - the de Havilland D.H. 86. This was de Havilland's first four-engined aircraft, and its was both designed and built in just four months for the Empire Air Route contract. Both Qantas Empire Airways and Imperial Airways placed orders for this type, and Imperial Airways commissioned the first of these new airliners, 'Diana', on the 25th of May 1934. The 'Diana' class made new European routes possible, and on the 1st of April 1935 a daily London and Budapest via Brussels-Cologne-Prague and Vienna route was opened. During the same year the frequency of both the London-Singapore and London-Johannesburg services were doubled. On the 19th of February 1936, the 'Diana' class was used on a weekly mail service between Kano in Nigeria and London, where it flew between Kano and Khartoum, from where the West African service joined the main Africa trunk route. This service later carried passengers and the route terminal was extended to Lagos on thye 15th of October, and to Accra on the Gold Coast on the 13th of October 1937. This route which Imperial Airways pioneered, was to become a main supply route to the Middle East during the war. On the 14th of March 1936, the type operated a new service between Penang and Hong Kong, linking with the main Australia route at Penang, which gave a weekly service between London and Hong Kong for the first time. The Short S23 Empire flying boat has been described as 'without question the most famous and successful of all pre-war civil transports'. The S23 carried 24 day-passengers or 16 in a sleeping berth layout. A popular feature was its promenade deck. On 30th October 1936, the first of the Short Empire flying boats, the 'Canopus', made its first service flight on a trans-Mediterranean service. Imperial Airways were to make a bold move and order 28 of these aircraft, without awaiting trials of the first aircraft. The aircraft was a success, and further orders were placed, making a total of 42 aeroplanes. These flying boats were produced to put the Empire Air Mail Programme into operation. Previously Imperial Airways had to carry passengers by train between Paris and the Mediterranean on the Empire routes. The Empire flying boats introduced an all-air route from 16th January 1937, operating from Southampton by way of Marseilles-Rome-Brindisi-Athens and Alexandria. This improvement meant that all Empire services were operated from Southampton from 5th March, and Croydon was the base for European routes only. During May 1937 Imperial Airways clocked up its 40,000th service across the English Channel, as well as its 1,000th service from England to the Empire. On the 15th of May land aircraft were withdrawn from the England-South Africa route as far south as Kisumu in Kenya Colony to be replaced by the Empire flying boats which used the Nile bases employed by the Calcutta flying boats. On the 2nd of June Flying boats took over the entire route. On the 16th of June 1937 the first British Atlantic air service began when Imperial Airways and Pan American Airways began a joint service between Bermuda and New York, the British service being flown by the 'Cavalier'. The Short S30, a later version of the S23, was powered by four Bristol Perseus engines, and had an all-up weight of 48,000 lb, five were built for Imperial Airways. |
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The Empire Air Mail Programme was inaugurated on the 29th of June 1937, when the Empire flying boat 'Centurion' left Southampton for South and East Africa. All mail was charged at 1½d. per oz. which made it possible to post air mail letters in ordinary letter boxes. During that year the 'Caledonia' and 'Cavalier' made survey flights across the North Atlantic, and on 27th and 28th of September the 'Cambria' made the fastest flight across the ocean between Botwood Newfoundland and Foynes, Eire, with a record time of ten hours thirty-six minutes. Many other surveys for routes were also made during 1937. This had been a great year for British Air Transport, starting with the commissioning of the world's largest fleet of commercial flying boats, changing from land planes to faster flying boats, inaugurating the Empire Air Mail Programme, making ten crossings of the North Atlantic to schedule, taking the first step in opening the longest air route in the world (15,000 miles from England to New Zealand), carried over 70,000 passengers and flown over 6,000,000 miles-no mean achievement! 1938 saw the schedules of the Empire routes being accelerated, and air mail figures for the first quarter gave an idea of how well the Empire Air Mail Programme was working. In three months over 100 tons of mail had been flown on the Africa route and the same volume on the India route. This service was given a great amount of praise from the United States where only 2 tons of air mail was carried per week in 1937. On the the 28th of July Australia, New Zealand, Tasmania, Papua, Fiji, Norfolk Island, Lord Howe Island, Nauru, The Mandated Territory of Western Samoa and the Territories under the Jurisdiction of the High Commissioner for the Western Pacific were brought into the Programme. |
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The vast stretch of the North Atlantic seemed an almost insurmountable barrier, preventing the start of air services westwards to Canada and the USA. 'Imperial Airways' used 'seaplanes for this service. |
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