Editing Imperial Airways (section)

==Empire services==
[[File:Imperial routes April 1935.jpg|thumb|April 1935 map showing Imperial Airways'<br />Air routes between England, India, Australia and South Africa]]

===Route proving===
Between 16 November 1925 and 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.50|de Havilland DH.50J]] floatplane ''G-EBFO''. The outward route was [[London]]–[[Paris]]–[[Marseille]]–[[Pisa]]–[[Taranto]]–[[Athens]]–[[Sallum|Sollum]]–[[Cairo]]–[[Luxor]]–[[Aswan]]–[[Wadi Halfa]]–[[Atbarah|Atbara]]–[[Khartoum]]–[[Malakal]]–[[Mongalla, South Sudan|Mongalla]]–[[Jinja, Uganda|Jinja]]–[[Kisumu]]–[[Tabora]]–[[Mbala, Zambia|Abercorn]]–[[Ndola]]–[[Kabwe|Broken Hill]]–[[Livingstone, Zambia|Livingstone]]–[[Bulawayo]]–[[Pretoria]]–[[Johannesburg]]–[[Kimberley, Northern Cape|Kimberley]]–[[Bloemfontein]]–[[Cape Town]]. On his return Cobham was awarded the [[Air Force Cross (United Kingdom)|Air Force Cross]] for his services to aviation.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Sir Alan Cobham; A Life of a Pioneering Aviator |url=https://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/research/online-exhibitions/sir-alan-cobham-a-pioneering-aviator/south-africa-flight/ |access-date=2023-04-01 |website=RAF Museum |language=en-GB}}</ref>

On 30 June 1926, Cobham took off from the [[River Medway]] at [[Rochester, Kent|Rochester]] in ''G-EBFO'' to make an Imperial Airways route survey for a service to Melbourne, arriving on 15 August 1926. He left Melbourne on 29 August 1926, and, after completing {{convert|28000|nmi|mi km}} in 320 hours flying time over 78 days, he alighted on the Thames at Westminster on 1 October 1926. Cobham was met by the [[Samuel Hoare, 1st Viscount Templewood|Secretary of State for Air, Sir Samuel Hoare]], and was subsequently knighted by HM [[King George V]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Sir Alan Cobham; A Life of a Pioneering Aviator |url=https://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/research/online-exhibitions/sir-alan-cobham-a-pioneering-aviator/australia-flight/ |access-date=2023-04-01 |website=RAF Museum |language=en-GB}}</ref>

On 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 1927 and Delhi on 8 January 1927. 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 1927. The flying time from Croydon to Delhi was 62 hours 27 minutes and Delhi to Heliopolis 32 hours 50 minutes.<ref name=DH66>Stroud, Nov 1986, pp. 609–14</ref>

===The Eastern route===
[[File:Imperial_Airways_Ad_1936.jpg|thumb|right|A 1936 advertisement]]

Regular services on the [[Cairo]] to [[Basra]] route began on 12 January 1927 using [[de Havilland Hercules|DH.66]] aircraft, replacing the [[Cairo – Baghdad air route|previous RAF mail flight]].<ref name=DH66 /> Following two years of negotiations with the Persian authorities regarding overflight rights, a London to [[Karachi]] service started on 30 March 1929, taking seven days and consisting of a flight from London to [[Basel]], a train to [[Genoa]] and a [[Short S.8 Calcutta]] [[flying boat]]s to Alexandria, a train to Cairo and finally a DH.66 flight to Karachi. The route was extended as far as Delhi on 29 December 1929. The route across Europe and the Mediterranean changed many times over the next few years but almost always involved a rail journey.

In April 1931 an experimental London-[[Australia]] air mail flight took place; the mail was transferred at the [[Dutch East Indies]], after the DH66 City of Cairo crashed landed in Timor, on the 19th April, having run out of fuel, 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 HP 42]] airliners were introduced on the Cairo to Karachi sector. The move saw the establishment of an airport and rest house,  [[Mahatta Fort]], in the [[Trucial States|Trucial State]] of [[Sharjah (emirate)|Sharjah]] now part of the [[United Arab Emirates]].{{Citation needed|date=May 2021}}

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 Airport|Croydon]]-[[Paris]]-[[Lyon]]-[[Rome]]-[[Brindisi]]-[[Athens]]-[[Alexandria]]-[[Cairo]] where it followed the normal route to [[Karachi]] then onwards to [[Jodhpur]]-[[Delhi]]-[[Kolkata|Calcutta]]-[[Sittwe|Akyab]]-[[Yangon|Rangoon]]-[[Bangkok]]-[[Prachuap Khiri Khan|Prachuab]]-[[Alor Setar]]-[[Singapore]]-[[Palembang]]-[[Jakarta|Batavia]]-[[Surabaya|Sourabaya]]-[[Bima]]-[[Kupang|Koepang]]-[[Bathurst Island Airport|Bathurst Island]]-[[Darwin, Northern Territory|Darwin]]-[[Newcastle Waters]]-[[Camooweal]]-[[Cloncurry]]-[[Longreach]]-[[Roma, Queensland|Roma]]-[[Toowoomba]] reaching [[Eagle Farm Airport|Eagle Farm, Brisbane]] on 23 June. Sydney was visited on 26 June, Canberra on 28 June and Melbourne on 29 June.{{Citation needed|date=May 2021}}

There followed a rapid eastern extension. The first London to [[Kolkata|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 mail service was inaugurated on March 14th, 1936.<ref>{{Cite web |last=JamesG |date=2016-07-24 |title=1936 – First Regular Mail Service to Hong Kong - Rhodesian Study Circle |url=https://www.rhodesianstudycircle.org.uk/1936-first-regular-mail-service-to-hong-kong/#:~:text=First%20Regular%20Mail%20Service%20to%20Hong%20Kong,mail%20route%20from%20London%20to%20Hong%20Kong. |access-date=2025-04-13 |language=en-GB}}</ref> The mail service, and later the passenger service, from London to Hong Kong connected with the London-Australia branch at Penang.{{citation needed|date=April 2025}} The mail leaving London on 14 March 1936 was connected with the first flight in Penang on March 23, following the establishment of a branch from Penang to Hong Kong.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Imperial Airways Route to Hong Kong |url=http://www.nzstamps.org.uk/air/external/eastern/hk.html |access-date=2025-04-13 |website=www.nzstamps.org.uk}}</ref>

===The Africa route===
[[File:De Havilland Hercules.jpg|thumb|right|de Havilland Hercules ''City of Cairo'']]

On 28 February 1931 a weekly service began between London and Mwanza on Lake Victoria in [[Tanganyika (territory)|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 [[Armstrong Whitworth Atalanta|Atalanta]]s replaced the DH.66s on the Kisumu to Cape Town sector of the London to Cape Town route.<ref name=Atalanta>Stroud, June 1986, pp.321–326</ref> On 9 February 1936 the trans-Africa route was opened by Imperial Airways between Khartoum and [[Kano (city)|Kano]] in Nigeria.  This route was extended to [[Lagos]] on 15 October 1936.

===Short Empire flying boats===
[[File:StateLibQld 1 154471 Flying boat, Challenger on her moorings in the Townsville Harbour, Queensland.jpg|thumb|Short Empire flying boat ''Challenger''.]]

In 1937 with the introduction of [[Short Empire]] flying boats built at Short Brothers, Imperial Airways could offer a through-service from [[Southampton]] to the Empire. The journey to the Cape was 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.<ref>{{Cite book|url=http://www.timetableimages.com/ttimages/iaw/iaw3810u/iaw38u-7.jpg|title=Imperial Airways Timetable October 1938|publisher=Curwen Press|year=1938|location=London|pages=2–3}}</ref>

In March 1939 three Shorts a week left Southampton for Australia, reaching Sydney after ten days of flying and nine overnight stops. Three more left for South Africa, taking six flying days to Durban.<ref>{{Cite book|url=http://www.timetableimages.com/ttimages/complete/iaw39aus/iaw39u-2.jpg|title=Imperial Airways Timetable April 1939|publisher=Curwen Press|year=1939|location=London|pages=2}}</ref>

===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 in 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.<ref name=Cultures>{{harvp|Pirie|2012}}</ref> There was opportunity for sightseeing from the air and at stops.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Pirie |first=G. H. |title=Incidental tourism: British imperial air travel in the 1930s |journal=Journal of Tourism History |issue=1 |date=2009 |volume=1 |pages=49–66|doi=10.1080/17551820902742772 |s2cid=144454885 |doi-access=free }}</ref> Imperial Airways sought to attracts tourists to Iraq.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Shakir |first=Laith |date=2025 |title=“Bringing ‘The Magic Carpet Up to Date’: Imperial Airways in Iraq, 1920–1932” |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/itinerario/article/bringing-the-magic-carpet-up-to-date-imperial-airways-in-iraq-19201932/9494633A9C7C9A715BF197611D96CF20 |journal=Itinerario |language=en |doi=10.1017/S0165115324000275 |issn=0165-1153}}</ref>

===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.<ref name=Cultures/>

===Air Mail===
[[File:FAM 18 Round the World 1939.jpg|thumb|right|Flown cover carried around the world on PAA Boeing 314 Clippers and Imperial Airways Short S23 flying boats 24 June – 28 July 1939]]

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 (civil servant)|Christopher Bullock]], the [[Permanent Secretary|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 government, including the Prime Minister, regretted the decision to dismiss him, later finding that, in fact, no corruption was alleged and sought [[Christopher Bullock (civil servant)|Bullock's]] reinstatement which he declined.<ref>{{Cite book|title=History of Air Cargo and Airmail from the 18th Century|last=Allaz |first=Camille|publisher=Gardners Books |year=2005|isbn=0954889606|pages=97}}</ref>

The Empire [[Air Mail]] Programme started in July 1937, delivering anywhere for 1{{sfrac|1|2}} 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 Station (London)|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.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2021-10-08|title=The Imperial Airways Empire Terminal, Victoria, London|url=https://londonairtravel.com/2019/08/26/british-airways-100-years-imperial-airways-empire-terminal/|access-date=2021-12-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211008091524/https://londonairtravel.com/2019/08/26/british-airways-100-years-imperial-airways-empire-terminal/|archive-date=8 October 2021}}</ref>

To help promote use of the Air Mail service, in June and July 1939, Imperial Airways participated with [[Pan American Airways]] in providing a special "around the world" service; Imperial carried the souvenir mail from [[Foynes]], [[Republic of Ireland|Ireland]], to [[Hong Kong]], out of the eastbound [[New York City|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.{{Citation needed|date=May 2021}}

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.<ref name="bluffield" />

In November 2016, 80 years later, the Crete2Cape Vintage Air Rally flew this old route with fifteen vintage aeroplanes – a celebration of the skill and determination of these early aviators.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.vintageairrally.com/rallies/past/crete2cape|title=CRETE2CAPE|date=2019|website=VintageAirRally|access-date=30 June 2019}}</ref>