Poster postcard, Imperial Airways (1924-1939)
Recently we visited the Museum of Flight and picked up a couple of postcards including the one shared this week. The card was made from a vintage travel poster for Imperial Airways and is from Found Image Press.
An early British commercial airline, Imperial Airways operated from 1924 to 1939 serving parts of Europe as well as South Africa, India and the Far East to places like Malaya and Hong Kong. The company was in partnership with Qantas in Australia and later merged with the British Overseas Airways Corporation, BOAC and still later the British European Airways BEA that became British Airways in 1974.
The airline was established to facilitate travel to and from overseas settlements, speed up colonial government and trade that until then had been dependent on the much slower steam ships. The aircraft used by the company were small, seating fewer than 20 passengers. Some of the planes used were de Havilands others were like the bi-plane shown on the postcard, a Short S.8 Calcutta, that could seat 15 passengers.
Built by Short Brothers, the Short S.8 had three prop engines and offered through service from Southampton, England to parts of the British Empire. The planes flew at 118 mph and covered a maximum range of 650 miles. Some destinations required several stops, for example, passengers wishing to go from England to Cape Town, South Africa would make stops in Marseille, Rome, Brindisi, Athens, Alexandria, Khartoum, Port Bell, Kisumu, then transfer to a land-based plane that would stop at Nairobi, Mbeya and eventually Cape Town. Today the same journey can be made with a direct flight.
The pilot was in an open cockpit, had a compass and radio beacon system, but typically flew visually. In clear weather he could fly at a higher elevation, in poor weather he flew lower so he could see the ground. Called a “flying boat” this plane has pontoons under the lower wings and landed in the water, then taxied to a dock so that the passengers could disembark.
For additional information, see:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_seaplanes_and_amphibious_aircraft
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_Airways
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_S.8_Calcutta
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