Imperial Airways
| Imperial Airways Ltd. | |
|---|---|
|
|
| IATA code : | (without) |
| ICAO code : | (without) |
| Call sign : | License plates of the aircraft |
| Founding: | 1924 |
| Operation stopped: | 1939 |
| Seat: |
 United Kingdom
|
| Turnstile : | |
| Company form: | Ltd. |
| Fleet size: | |
| Aims: | international |
| Imperial Airways Ltd. ceased operations in 1939. The information in italics refer to the last status before the end of operation. | |
Imperial Airways Ltd. was a British airline founded in 1924 with a focus on international scheduled services. In 1939 it was nationalized and merged with the domestic company British Airways to form the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC).
history
founding
The establishment was preceded by a recommendation by a government commission (the Hambling Committee) from 1923, according to which the most important airlines at the time in Great Britain should merge into one company in order to be prepared for international air traffic . Imperial Airways was made up of Handley Page Transport Ltd., Instone Air Line Ltd., Daimler Airway and British Marine Air Navigation Company Ltd. on April 1, 1924 . together. Among the acquired are aircraft (three Handley Page W.8B , a Vickers Vimy , seven De Havilland DH.34 , and two flying boats of the type Supermarine Sea Eagle ) was already obsolete part or no longer applicable.
The base of the land-based aircraft was in the London Borough of Croydon . In addition to the air connections between England and the rest of Europe, the tasks included, in particular, the connection within the extensive British Empire at the time .
1920s
On April 26, 1924, a de Havilland DH.34 began flight operations with a daily connection between London and Paris . Then from May 1st the routes Southampton - Guernsey , from May 3rd then London - Brussels , - Ostend and - Cologne as well as the routes London - Basel and London - Zurich via Paris were added, the latter only being flown in the summer months.
From October 1, 1925, the Cairo - Karachi route was the first non-European connection within what was then the British Empire.
In 1926 the fleet was expanded considerably with a Handley Page W.9 , four W.10 and the new Armstrong Whitworth Argosy .
In January 1927, Imperial Airways established a connection between Cairo and Basra . As navigation over the desert area was very difficult, a clearly recognizable furrow was plowed through the desert floor between Palestine and Baghdad beforehand.
On May 1, 1927, the first line connection with its own name - "Silver Wing" - went into operation with an Argosy on the London-Paris route. A meal was already offered during the flight.
In December of the same year a flight connection between Egypt and India was started. The de Havilland Hercules , specially commissioned for overseas connections, was used for this purpose.
The routes were gradually expanded, and on March 30, 1929 Imperial Airways opened the first stage of an air connection between England and India on the London- Karachi route with a Short Calcutta flying boat .
1930s
The first part of the route between Cairo and Cape Town was opened on February 28, 1931 with a weekly flight connection between London and Tanganyika . On January 20, 1932, mail could be flown to Cape Town. From April 27, 1932, passenger service followed on this route.
On April 1, 1931, airmail was sent between London and Australia on a trial basis . In the Dutch East Indies , an Australian plane took over the mail and brought it to Sydney on April 29th .
After purchasing eight four-engine Handley Page HP42s , Imperial expanded its range significantly. Complete meals were served in the comfortably equipped aircraft during the flight. In 1933 the airline expanded connections in Asia to Rangoon and Singapore .
On January 18, 1934, Imperial Airways and Qantas jointly founded Qantas Empire Airways Ltd.
With the De Havilland DH.86 Express , further routes in Europe such as London-Brussels-Cologne-Prague-Budapest were opened from 1935. In 1936 further connections followed in Africa as well as to Penang and Hong Kong . In addition, the Short S.23 Empire took over flights in the Mediterranean area. From 1937, direct flights were made to the Mediterranean area via the Southampton-Marseille-Rome-Brindisi-Athens-Alexandria route. Southampton has since served as the base for all flights into the Empire, while Croydon became the starting point for flights within Europe.
On June 16, 1937, Imperial and Pan American Airways opened their first Atlantic connection from Bermuda to New York with the Short S.30 .
In 1938 there was a further modernization with the Armstrong Whitworth Ensign and the De Havilland DH.91 Albatross , which also set some records in the connection of European capitals.
In order to be able to cope with the North Atlantic route, Imperial Airways experimented with a kind of mistletoe team called Short Mayo . This consisted of a four-engine flying boat, the "Maia", on which a smaller seaplane, the "Mercury", was mounted. After the Maia had reached a certain altitude, the Mercury separated from her in order to cover the rest of the distance alone. On July 21, 1938, the first flight took place on which the Mercury landed in Montreal and, after unloading with newspapers and photos, flew on to New York, where it landed after just under 25 hours. The second method tested was air refueling through a converted Handley Page Harrow . When the first fueled flying boat arrived in New York, World War II had just begun.
In 1939 Imperial Airways had commissioned the development of a new aircraft, the Short S.26 . When the machines of this type were ready for use, they were already at war. The aircraft were therefore each equipped with three Boulton Paul-BPA Mk II quadruple machine-gun stands and used as long-range reconnaissance aircraft for the RAF . In the course of the same year, Imperial Airways finally went together with British Airways Ltd. in the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC).
fleet
Administration building
The last administrative building of Imperial Airways was at 157-197 Buckingham Palace Road in London (Westminster SW1) and was occupied in 1939. In front of it stands the sculpture Speed Wings Over The World by Eric R. Broadbent with the three-dimensional emblem of Imperial Airways.
See also
Web links
- Early documents and newspaper articles about Imperial Airways in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Fleet ( Memento of the original from May 25, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ www./taylorempireairways.com Imperial Airways Empire Terminal. Accessed August 21, 2013.
Airlines from the United Kingdom , British Overseas Territories and the Crown possessions of the British Crown
