Imperial Airways @·AIRCRAFTUBE

  • Short Empire "Challenger" Short Empire "Challenger"
    Short Empire "Challenger"
  • de Havilland Hercules "City of Cairo" de Havilland Hercules "City of Cairo"
    de Havilland Hercules "City of Cairo"
  • April 1935 April 1935
    April 1935
  • Handley Page W.8b Handley Page W.8b
    Handley Page W.8b
  • H.P.42<br>"Hanno" H.P.42<br>"Hanno"
    H.P.42
    "Hanno"
  • Armstrong Whitworth<br>A.W.154 Argosy Armstrong Whitworth<br>A.W.154 Argosy
    Armstrong Whitworth
    A.W.154 Argosy
  • The Short S.26 G-AFCI became X8275 serving with Nr.10 Squadron The Short S.26 G-AFCI became X8275 serving with Nr.10 Squadron
    The Short S.26 G-AFCI became X8275 serving with Nr.10 Squadron
  • de Havilland DH.91 Albatross de Havilland DH.91 Albatross
    de Havilland DH.91 Albatross
  • Avro 652 Avro 652
    Avro 652
  • The Captains<br>Wilcockson<br>and Bennett The Captains<br>Wilcockson<br>and Bennett
    The Captains
    Wilcockson
    and Bennett
  • Handley Page H.P.42 "Hanno" Handley Page H.P.42 "Hanno"
    Handley Page H.P.42 "Hanno"
  • Armstrong Whitworth A.W.15 Atalanta Armstrong Whitworth A.W.15 Atalanta
    Armstrong Whitworth A.W.15 Atalanta
  • The Fokker "Apollo" Refuelling at Ramleh in 1932 The Fokker "Apollo" Refuelling at Ramleh in 1932
    The Fokker "Apollo" Refuelling at Ramleh in 1932
  • Armstrong Whitworth A.W.27 Ensign I Armstrong Whitworth A.W.27 Ensign I
    Armstrong Whitworth A.W.27 Ensign I

Imperial Airways

Imperial Airways was the early British commercial long range air transport company, operating from 1924 to 1939 and serving parts of Europe but principally the Empire routes to South Africa, India and the Far East, including Malaya and Hong Kong. There were local partnership companies; Qantas (Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services Ltd) in Australia and TEAL (Tasman Empire Airways Ltd) in New Zealand.

Imperial Airways was merged into the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) in 1939, which in turn merged with the British European Airways Corporation to form British Airways.

Background

The establishment of Imperial Airways occurred in the context of facilitating overseas settlement by making travel to and from the colonies quicker, and that flight would also speed up colonial government and trade that was until then dependant upon ships. The launch of the airline followed a burst of air route survey in the British Empire after the First World War, and after some experimental (and often dangerous) long-distance flying to the margins of Empire.

Formation

Imperial Airways was created against a background of stiff competition from French and German airlines that enjoyed heavy government subsidies and following the advice of the government's 'Hambling Committee' (formally known as the 'C.A.T Subsidies Committee'). The committee produced a report in February 1923 recommending that four of the largest existing airlines, The Instone Air Line Company, owned by shipping magnate Samuel Instone, Noel Pemberton Billing's British Marine Air Navigation (part of the Supermarine flying-boat company), the Daimler Airway, under the management of George Edward Woods and Handley Page Transport Co Ltd., should be merged. It was hoped that this would create a company which could compete against French and German competition and would be strong enough to develop Britain's external air services while minimizing government subsidies for duplicated services. With this in view, a £1m subsidy over ten years was offered to encourage the merger. Agreement was made between the President of the Air Council and the British, Foreign and Colonial Corporation on 3 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.

Imperial Airways Limited was formed on 31 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. The government had appointed two directors Hambling (who was also President of the Institute of Bankers) and Major J. W. Hills a former Treasury Financial Secretary.

The land operations were based at Croydon Airport to the south of London. IAL immediately discontinued its predecessors' service to points north of London, the airline being focused on international and imperial service rather than domestic. Thereafter the only IAL aircraft operating 'North of Watford' were charter flights.

Industrial troubles with the pilots delayed the start of services until 26 April 1924, when a daily London-Paris route was opened with a de Havilland DH.34. Thereafter the task of expanding the routes between England and the Continent began, with Southampton-Guernsey on 1 May 1924, London-Brussels-Cologne on 3 May, London-Amsterdam on 2 June 1924, and a summer service from London-Paris-Basle-Zürich on 17 June 1924. The first new airliner ordered by Imperial Airways, was the Handley Page W8f "City of Washington", delivered on 3 November 1924. In the first year of operation the company carried 11,395 passengers and 212,380 letters. In April 1925, the film The Lost World became the first film to be screened for passengers on a scheduled airliner flight when it was shown on the London-Paris route.

Empire Services

Route Proving

From 16 November 1925 to 13 March 1926 Alan Cobham made an Imperial Airways’ route survey flight from the UK to Cape Town and back in the Armstrong Siddeley Jaguar-powered de Havilland DH.50J G-EBFO. The outward flight was London-Paris-Marseille-Pisa-Taranto-Athens-Sollum-Cairo-Luxor-Assuan-Wadi Halfa-Atbara-Khartoum-Malakal-Mongalla-Jinja-Kisumu-Tabora-Abercorn-Ndola-Broken Hill-Livingstone-Bulawayo-Pretoria-Johannesburg-Kimberley-Blomfontein-Cape Town. On his return Cobham was awarded the Air Force Cross for his services to aviation.

On 30 June 1926 Alan Cobham left the Medway at Rochester in G-EBFO on a commercial route survey for Imperial Airways to Melbourne, arriving on 15 August. He left Melbourne on 29 August and after completing 28,000 miles in 78 days with 320 hours flying he alighted on the Thames at Westminster on 1 October. Cobham was met by the Secretary of State for Air, Sir Samuel Hoare, and was subsequently knighted by HM King George V.

27 December 1926 Imperial Airways de Havilland DH.66 Hercules G-EBMX City of Delhi left Croydon for a survey flight to India. The flight reached Karachi on 6 January and Delhi on 8 January. The aircraft was named by Lady Irwin, wife of the Viceroy, on 10 January 1927. The return flight left on 1 February 1927 and arrived at Heliopolis, Cairo on 7 February. The flying time from Croydon to Delhi was 62 hours 27 minutes and Delhi to Heliopolis 32 hours 50 minutes.

The Eastern Route

Regular services began on 12 January 1927 using DH.66 aircraft on the Cairo to Basra route, replacing the previous RAF mail flight. The service was extended to Karachi when 2 years of negotiations with the Persian authorities were successfully completed granting Imperial Airways regular overflight rights. The first London to Karachi service departed on 30 March 1929 and took 7 days. The route from London was by air to Basle, and then by rail to Genoa. The flight from Genoa to Alexandria was by the new Short S.8 Calcutta flying boats. After travelling by rail to Cairo passengers boarded a DH.66 to fly the Cairo to Karachi sector. The route across Europe and the Mediterranean changed many times over the next few years but almost always involved a rail journey. Later in the year the route was extended, with a flight departing London for Delhi on 29 December 1929.

In April 1931 an experimental London-Australia air mail flight took place; the mail was transferred at the Dutch East Indies, and took 26 days in total to reach Sydney. For the passenger flight leaving London on 1 October 1932, the Eastern route was switched from the Persian to the Arabian side of the Persian Gulf, and Handley Page H.P.42 airliners were introduced on the Cairo to Karachi sector.

On 29 May 1933 an England to Australia survey flight took off, operated by Imperial Airways Armstrong Whitworth Atalanta G-ABTL Astraea. Major H G Brackley, Imperial Airways’ Air Superintendent, was in charge of the flight. Astraea flew Croydon-Paris-Lyons-Rome-Brindidsi-Athens-Alexandria-Cairo where it followed the normal route to Karachi then onwards to Jodhpur-Delhi-Calcutta-Akyab-Rangoon-Bangkok-Prachuab-Alor Star-Singapore-Palembang-Batavia-Sourabaya-Bima-Koepang-Bathurst Island-Darwin-Newcastle Waters-Camooweal-Cloncurry-Longreach-Roma-Toowoomba reaching Eagle Farm, Brisbane on 23 June. Sydney was visited on 26 June, Canberra on 28 June and Melbourne on 29 June.

There followed a rapid eastern extension. The first London to Calcutta service departed on 1 July 1933, the first London to Rangoon service on 23 September 1933, the first London to Singapore service on 9 December 1933, and the first London to Brisbane service on 8 December 1934, with Qantas responsible for the Singapore to Brisbane sector. (The 1934 start was for mail; passenger flights to Brisbane began the following April.) The first London to Hong Kong passengers departed London on 14 March 1936 following the establishment of a branch from Penang to Hong Kong.

The Africa Route

On 28 February 1931 a weekly service began between London and Mwanza on Lake Victoria in Tanganyika as part of the proposed route to Cape Town. On 9 December 1931 the Imperial Airways’ service for Central Africa was extended experimentally to Cape Town for the carriage of Christmas mail. The aircraft used on the last sector, DH66 G-AARY City of Karachi arrived in Cape Town on 21 December 1931. On 20 January 1932 a mail-only route to London to Cape Town was opened. On 27 April this route was opened to passengers and took 10 days. In early 1933 Atalantas replaced the DH.66s on the Kisumu to Cape Town sector of the London to Cape Town route. On 9 February 1936 the trans-Africa route was opened by Imperial Airways between Khartoum and Kano in Nigeria. This route was extended to Lagos on 15 October 1936.

Short Empire Flying Boats

In 1937 with the introduction of 'Empire class' flying boats designed and built at the Short Brothers factory, Imperial Airways could offer a real through-service from Southampton to the Empire. The journey to the Cape consisted of flights via Marseille, Rome, Brindisi, Athens, Alexandria, Khartoum, Port Bell, Kisumu and onwards by land-based craft to Nairobi, Mbeya and eventually Cape Town. Survey flights were also made across the Atlantic and to New Zealand. By mid-1937 Imperial had completed its thousandth service to the Empire. Starting in 1938 Empire flying boats also flew between Britain and Australia via India and the Middle East.

Passengers

Imperial's aircraft were small, most seating fewer than twenty passengers; about 50,000 passengers used Imperial Airways in the 1930s. Most passengers on intercontinental routes or on services within and between British colonies were men doing colonial administration, business or research. To begin with only the wealthy could afford to fly, but passenger lists gradually diversified. Travel experiences related to flying low and slow, and were reported enthusiastically in newspapers, magazines and books.There was opportunity for sightseeing from the air and at stops.

Crews

Imperial Airways stationed its all-male flight deck crew, cabin crew and ground crew along the length of its routes. Specialist engineers and inspectors - and ground crew on rotation or leave - travelled on the airline without generating any seat revenue. Several air crew lost their lives in accidents. At the end of the 1930s crew numbers approximated 3,000. All crew were expected to be ambassadors for Britain and the British Empire.

Air Mail

In 1934 the Government began negotiations with Imperial Airways to establish a service (Empire Air Mail Scheme) to carry mail by air on routes served by the airline. Indirectly these negotiations led to the dismissal in 1936 of Sir Christopher Bullock, the Permanent Under-Secretary at the Air Ministry, who was found by a Board of Inquiry to have abused his position in seeking a position on the board of the company while these negotiations were in train.

The Empire Air Mail Programme began in July 1937, delivering anywhere for 1½ d./oz. By mid-1938 a hundred tons of mail had been delivered to India and a similar amount to Africa. In the same year, construction was started on the Empire Terminal in Victoria, London, designed by A. Lakeman and with a statue by Eric Broadbent, Speed Wings Over the World gracing the portal above the main entrance. From the terminal there were train connections to Imperial's flying boats at Southampton and coaches to its landplane base at Croydon Airport. The terminal operated as recently as 1980.

To help promote use of the Air Mail service, in June and July 1939, Imperial Airways participated with Pan American World Airways in providing a special "around the world" service; Imperial carried the souvenir mail from Foynes, Ireland, to Hong Kong, out of the eastbound New York to New York route. Pan American provided service from New York to Foynes (departing 24 June, via the first flight of Northern FAM 18) and Hong Kong to San Francisco (via FAM 14), and United Airlines carried it on the final leg from San Francisco to New York, arriving on 28 July.

Captain H.W.C. Alger was the pilot for the inaugural air mail flight carrying mail from England to Australia for the first time on the Short Empire flyingboat Castor for Imperial Airways' Empires Air Routes, in 1937.

Accidents and incidents

  • On 24 December 1924, de Havilland DH.34 G-EBBX City of Delhi crashed and caught fire shortly after take-off from Croydon Airport, killing the pilot and all seven passengers.
  • On 21 October 1926, Handley Page W.10 G-EBMS City of Melbourne ditched in the English Channel 18 nautical miles (33 km) off the English coast. All 12 people on board were rescued by FV Invicta.
  • On 13 July 1928, Vickers Vulcan G-EBLB crashed at Purley killing four of the six people on board.
  • On 17 June 1929, Handley Page W.10 G-EBMT City of Ottawa ditched in the English Channel whilst on a flight from Croydon to Paris with the loss of seven lives.
  • On 6 September 1929, de Havilland Hercules G-EBMZ City of Jerusalem crashed on landing at Jask, Iran due to the pilot misjudging the altitude and stalling the aircraft, killing three of five on board.
  • On 26 October 1929, Short Calcutta G-AADN City of Rome force-landed off Spezia, Italy in poor weather, killing all seven on board; the flying boat sank during attempts to tow it to shore.
  • On 30 October 1930, Handley Page W.8g G-EBIX City of Washington struck high ground in fog at Boulogne, Paris, France, killing three of six on board.
  • On 8 August 1931, Handley Page H.P.42 G-AAGX Hannibal was operating a scheduled passenger flight from Croydon to Paris when an engine failed and debris forced a second engine to be shut down. A forced landing at Five Oak Green, Kent resulted in extensive damage. No injuries occured. Hannibal was dismantled and trucked to Croydon for to be rebuilt.
  • On 28 March 1933, Armstrong Whitworth Argosy G-AACI City of Liverpool crashed at Dixmude, Belgium following an in-flight fire. This is suspected to be the first case of sabotage in the air. All fifteen people on board were killed.
  • On 30 December 1933, Avro Ten G-ABLU Apollo collided with a radio mast at Ruysselede, Belgium and crashed. All ten people on board were killed.
  • On 31 December 1935, Short Calcutta G-AASJ City of Khartoum crashed off Alexandria, Egypt due to fuel exhaustion; twelve of 13 on board drowned when the flying boat sank.
  • On 22 August 1936, Short Kent G-ABFA Scipio sank at Mirabella, Crete after a heavy landing, killing two of 11 on board.
  • On 24 March 1937, Short Empire G-ADVA Capricornus crashed in the Beaujolois Mountains near Ouroux, France, killing five.
  • On 31 May 1937, Handley Page H.P.45 (former H.P.42) G-AAXE Hengist was destroyed in a hangar fire at Karachi, India.
  • On 1 October 1937, Short Empire G-ADVC Courtier crashed on landing in Phaleron Bay, Greece due to poor visibility, killing two of 15 on board.
  • On 5 December 1937, Short Empire G-ADUZ Cygnus crashed on takeoff from Brindisi, Italy due to incorrect flap settings, killing two.
  • On 27 July 1938, Armstrong Whitworth Atalanta G-ABTG Amalthea flew into a hillside near Kisumu, Kenya, killing all four on board.
  • On 27 November 1938, Short Empire G-AETW Calpurnia crashed in Lake Habbaniyah, Iraq in bad weather after the pilot attempted to determine the aircraft's position, killing four.
  • On 21 January 1939, Short Empire G-ADUU Cavalier ditched in the Atlantic 285 mi off New York due to carburator icing and loss of engine power; three drowned while ten survivors were picked up by the tanker Esso Baytown. Thereafter Imperial Airways and Pan-American trans-oceanic flying boats had the upper surfaces of the wings painted with orange high visibility markings.
  • On 1 May 1939, Short Empire G-ADVD Challenger crashed in the Lumbo lagoon after attempting to land at Lumbo Airport, killing two of six on board.
  • On 1 Mar 1940, H.P.42 Hannibal crashed in the Gulf of Oman enroute from Jiwani, in Baluchistan to Sharjah, killing everyone aboard.

Aircraft

Imperial Airways operated many types of aircraft from its formation in 1 April 1924 until 1 April 1940 when all aircraft still in service were transferred to BOAC.

Aircraft Type # Period Names Notes
Airco DH.4A landplane 1 1924-1924 G-EAMU (retired 1924) ex-Instone Air Line, likely never used by Imperial Airways.
Armstrong Whitworth Argosy Mk.I landplane 3 1926-1934 Birmingham (crashed 1931), City of Wellington (later City of Arundel) (1934), Glasgow (retired 1934)  
Armstrong Whitworth Argosy Mk.II landplane 4 1929-1936 City of Edinburgh, City of Liverpool, City of Manchester and City of Coventry  
Armstrong Whitworth Atalanta landplane 8 1932-1941 Atalanta, Andromeda, Arethusa (renamed Atalanta), Artemis, Astraea, Athena, Aurora and Amalthea. For Nairobi-Cape Town leg on South Africa route & Karachi-Singapore leg on Australia route.
Armstrong Whitworth Ensign landplane 12 1938-1946 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.
Avro 618 Ten landplane 2 1930-1938 Achilles (crashed 1938) Apollo (collided with radio mast 1933) licence-built Fokker F.VII 3/m
Avro 652 landplane 2 1936-1938 Avalon and Avatar (later Ava) to RAF in 1938. Prototypes for Anson bomber/trainer
Boulton Paul P.71A landplane 2 1934-1936 Bodiciea (lost 1935) and Britomart (lost 1936) Experimental mailplanes
Bristol Type 75 Ten-seater landplane 2 1924-1926 G-EAWY, G-EBEV (retired 1925) ex-Instone Air Line used as freighters
de Havilland DH.34 landplane 7 1924-1926 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)  
de Havilland DH.50 landplane 3 1924-1933 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
de Havilland DH.54 Highclere landplane 1 1924-1927 G-EBKI used as freighter until destroyed in hangar collapse
de Havilland Giant Moth landplane 1 1930-1930 G-AAEV (wrecked 1930) crashed in Northern Rhodesia 2 weeks after hand over.
de Havilland Hercules landplane 9 1926-1935 City of Cairo, City of Delhi, City of Bagdhad, City of Jerusalem, City of Tehran, City of Basra, City of Karachi,City of Jodhpur and City of Cape Town
de Havilland DH.86 landplane
Diana class		 12 1934-1941 Daedalus (burned 1938), Danae, Dardanus, Delia (wrecked 1941), Delphinus, Demeter, Denebola, Dido, Dione, Dorado, Draco (wrecked 1935), and Dryad (sold 1938) All surviving aircraft impressed in 1941
de Havilland Albatross landplane
Frobisher class		 7 1938-1943 Faraday (impressed 1940), Franklin (impressed 1940), Frobisher (destroyed 1940), Falcon (scrapped 1943), Fortuna (crashed 1943), Fingal (crashed 1940) and Fiona (scrapped 1943). 1 used as long range mail carrier
Handley Page W8b landplane 3 1924-1932 Princess Mary (wrecked 1928), Prince George (retired 1929) and Prince Henry (retired 1932) ex-Handley Page Transport
Handley Page W8f landplane 1 1924-1930 City of Washington (wrecked 1930)
Handley Page W9a landplane 1 1926-1929 City of New York (sold 1929)
Handley Page W10 landplane 4 1926-1933 City of Melbourne (sold 1933), City of Pretoria (sold 1933), City of London (crashed 1926) and City of Ottawa (crashed 1929).
Handley Page H.P.42E landplane
Hannibal class		 4 1931-1940 Hannibal (wrecked 1940), Horsa (impressed 1940), Hanno (wrecked 1940), Hadrian (impressed 1940) (24 passengers) used on long "Empire" routes
Handley Page H.P.42W/H.P.45 landplane
Handley Page H.P.42 'Heracles' class		 4 1931-1940 Handley Page H.P.42 '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.
Short S.8 Calcutta flying boat 5 1928-1935 City of Alexandria, City of Athens (later City of Stonehaven), City of Rome (wrecked 1929), City of Khartoum (wrecked 1935) and City of Salonica (later City of Swanage)
Short S.17 Kent flying boat
Scipio Class		 3 1931-1938 Scipio (wrecked 1936), Sylvanus (burned 1935) and Satyrus (scrapped 1938)
Short L.17 Scylla landplane 2 1934-1940 Scylla (wrecked 1940) and Syrinx (scrapped 1940) Landplane version of Kent, replacement for lost H.P.42s.
Short Mayo Composite flying boat 1 1938-1940 Mercury (scrapped 1941) and Maia (destroyed in German raid, 1942). Long range piggyback Composite aircraft derived from Short Empire.
Short S.23 Empire flying boat
C Class		 31 1936-1947 Canopus, Caledonia, Centaurus, Cavalier, Cambria, Castor, Cassiopea, Capella, Cygnus, Capricornus, Corsair, Courtier, Challenger, Centurion, Coriolanus, Calpurnia, Ceres, Clio, Circe, Calypso, Camilla, Corinna, Cordelia, Cameronian, Corinthian, Coogee, Corio, and Coorong. Carpentaria, Coolangatta, Cooee delivered but not used, and transferred to Qantas provided mail and passenger service to Bermuda, South Africa and Australia.
Short S.26 flying boat
G Class		 3 1939-1940 Golden Hind, Golden Fleece and Golden Horn Built for trans-atlantic service, impressed by RAF before entering revenue service. 2 returned to BOAC service and used until 1947.
Short S.30 Empire flying boat
C Class		 9 1938-1947 Champion, Cabot, Caribou, Connemara, Clyde, Clare, Cathay, Ao-tea-roa (to TEAL as Aotearoa), Captain Cook (to TEAL as Awarua). long range variant of S.23
Supermarine Sea Eagle flying boat 2 1924-1929 Sarnia (G-EBGR) (retired 1929) and G-EBGS (wrecked 1927) ex-British Marine Air Navigation
Supermarine Southampton flying boat 1 1929-1930 G-AASH RAF S1235 on loan for 3 months to replace crashed Calcutta on Genoa-Alexandria airmail run.
Supermarine Swan flying boat 1 1925-1927 G-EBJY (scrapped) RAF prototype loaned for cross-Channel service
Vickers Vellox landplane 1 1934-1936 G-ABKY (wrecked 1936) cargo/experimental flights. Crashed at Croyden in August killing pilots and two wireless operators.
Vickers Vimy Commercial landplane 1 1924-1925 City of London (wrecked 1925) ex-Instone Air Line
Vickers Vulcan landplane 3 1924-1928 City of Brussels (wrecked 1928) one wasn't used, another loaned from Air Ministry for 1925 Empire Exhibition Display.
Westland IV and Wessex landplane 3 1931-1937 G-AAGW, G-ABEG, G-ACHI 2 leased to other operators. IV (G-AAGW) upgraded to Wessex.

Amalgamation

Compared to other operators of that time (Air France, KLM, Deutsche Luft Hansa), Imperial Airways was lagging behind technically and it was suggested that all European operations be handed over to its competitor British Airways Ltd (founded in 1935) which had more modern aircraft. However in November 1939 both Imperial and British Airways Ltd were merged into a new state-owned national carrier: British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC). The new carrier retained the Imperial Speedbird logo, which has evolved into the present British Airways Speedmarque, while Speedbird remains BA's call sign.

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    Comments are moderated, so please allow some delay before they appear, specially if you are outside Europe.

    Menus are developing below the page, because they are too long!

    But they remain accessible, for example by scrolling the mouse wheel, or with your finger (on the menu) on a smartphone or tablet.

    I see adds on all videos.

    Use a good free add remover software.

    The site is loading random pages at startup.

    We think it is a good way to bring back the memory of aircraft, persons or events sometimes quite forgotten.

    HELP PAGE

    Why this site?

    Discovery

    This website is dedicated to one's aeronautical passion (which I hope we share) and was realised mainly as an educationnal tool. Knowing that, you'll notice that each new visit brings random topics for the purpose of making new discoveries, some achievements or characters certainly not deserving the oblivion into which they have sometimes fallen.

    By these pages, we also want to pay tribute to all those who gave at one time or another, their lives or health in the name of freedom, aeronautical security or simply our comfort.

    Centralisation

    Internet is full of websites dedicated to aviation, but most are dedicated to subjects or periods that are very limited in space or time. The purpose of this site is to be as general as possible and thus treats all events as well as characters of all stripes and times while putting much emphasis on the most significant achievements.

    The same years saw birth of technologies like photography and cinema, thus permitting illustration of a large part of important aeronautical events from the start. Countless (and sometimes rare) media recently put online by enthousiasts finally give us access to these treasures, but the huge amount of information often makes things a little messy. A centralization effort is obviously most needed at this level.

    All persons who directly or indirectly contributed to the achievement or posting of such documents are here gratefully acknowledged.

    General

    Fluid website

    This site automatically fits the dimensions of your screen, whether you are on a desktop computer, a tablet or a smartphone.

    Bilingual website

    You can change the language by clicking on the flag in the upper left or via "Options" in the central menu. Of course, the videos remain in the language in which they were posted ...

    Browser compatibility

    The site is not optimized, or even designed to run on older browsers or those deliberately deviating from standards. You will most probably encounter display issues with Internet Explorer. In this case, it is strongly recommended installing a modern (and free!) browser that's respecting the standards, like Firefox, Opera, Chrome or Safari.

    Cookies and Javascript

    This site uses cookies and JavaScript to function properly. Please ensure that your browser is configured accordingly. Neither of these technologies, or other means shall in no case be used on the Site for the retention or disclosure of personal information about its Visitors. See the "Legal" page for more on this subject.

    Website layout

    Left menus

    Because of the lack of space on smartphones and small tablets, these menus are hidden. Everything is nevertheless accessible via the main menu option, located between the video and photo sections. This menu is placed there for compatibility reasons with some browsers, which play the videos over the menus.

    "Search" and "Latest" :
    The link "In Titles" restricts the search to the titles of different forms. Use this option if you are looking for a plane, a constructor, a pilot or a particular event that could have been treated as a subject.

    The link "In Stories" will bring you to a search in all texts (the "Story" tab) and will take more time. The search term will appear highlighted in green when opening the corresponding story.

    Would you believe, "Timeline" will show all subjects in chronological order.

    "Random" will reload the entire page with a new random topic.

    The bottom section keeps you abreast of the latest five entries. New topics are added regularly. Don't hesitate to come visit us often : add bookmark.

    Blogs and Comments central section

    Under the photos section comes the comments tabs window :

    You can enter general comments in your own language via one of the two buttons on the left (BLOG EN and BLOG FR). Note that these buttons are accessible regardless of the language to allow some participation in the other language.

    All comments are subject to moderation and will be published only if they comply with the basic rules of decorum, while remaining relevant to the purpose of this site.

    The third tab allows you to enter comments on the shown topic and is bilingual. Personal anecdotes, supplements and other information questions will take place here.

    The "Story" tab shows the explanatory texts. They are most often taken from Wikipedia, a site where we participate regularly.

    The "Data" tab is reserved for list of features and specifications.

    Right menus

    On a smartphone, the lack of space is growing and this menu is moved to the bottom of the page to give priority to videos and pictures.

    The top right icons are links to videos posted by third parties (on their own responsabilities) or by ourselves. The link below these icons will take you to the channel of the one who posted the video. Feel free to suggest other videos if you think they are of some interest (Use the BLOG button or the "Contact" link).