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Imperial Airways operated not
only as passenger transport, and freight carriers but were also
the main Royal Mail 'Airmail' carriers. The company used Croydon
for it's land based operations centre, but also operated seaplanes
from Southampton and other coastal ports for long range links. |
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First to offer
an inflight luncheon service |
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First
airline to make a radio link with a railway |
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First
to carry a car as cargo (a Croydon made Trojan) |
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First
broadcast of a live orchestra from the air (Jack Hilton Orcherstra) |
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Many first
Airmail deliveries to different parts of the world |
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First
to carry out in flight re-fuelling |
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(above) St John Ambulance air evacuation
practice |
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(above)
first inflight luncheon 1923 |
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(above)
First aircraft cinema 6th of April 1925 |
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(below) A lineup of eight Imperial Airways HP Airliners
in 1926. From front to rear they are G-EBBL, G-EBBH, G-EBBD,
G-EBLE, G-EBMT, G-EBMR, G-EBMM and G-EBMS.In the front is G-EAKM,
an Avro 536 of Surrey Flying Services, while in the very background
is F-ADCA, a Farman Goliath of French airline Air Union. |
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(above
and below) 'City of
Glasgow'. First Airmail flight to India and back. Top picture
suggests 1928 as Terminal not opened until then, bottom one stated
1926 ? |
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(below) 1926. Stress testing an Imperial airliner wings |
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(above) Off to the races at Liverpool. March 1930. |
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The (above) picture is of an Imperial Airways 'Handley Page
HP42' on the Croydon tarmac apron, making ready for a scheduled
night flight. |
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(above) A group of the first 'Busmen'
to go flying in an 'AW Argosy'. 1931 |
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(below) arrivals from Palestine |
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In celebration
of one million miles of service. 1937 |
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(above) Cape Town-Croydon. 1932 |
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(above) Croydon-South Africa. 1932. |
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(below) A lion arrives by Imperial Airways. |
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(above) Croydon-Austria.1935 |
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