Imperial Airways

Imperial Airways was an early on British saleable air transport company, in service from 1924 to 1939.

Created subsequent the advice of the government Humbling Committee in 1923 — that the main existing aircraft companies should be merged to create a company which would be physically powerful enough to develop Britain's external air services — and offered a £1m subsidy over ten years if they merged. Imperial Airways Limited was formed in March 1924 from the British Marine Air Navigation Company Ltd, the Daimler Airway, Handley-Page Transport Ltd and the Intone Air Line Ltd. The land operations were based at Corydon Airport.

The first commercial flight was in April 1924, when a daily London-Paris examines was opened. Additional services to other European destinations were started all through the summer. The first new airliner was specially made by Imperial Airways in November 1924. In the first year of operation the company carried 11,395 passengers and 212,380 letters.

The porch of service to the British Empire was not begun until 1927 when, with the addition of six new aircraft, a service was instituted from Cairo to Basra. But the first service from London for Karachi did not start until 1929 using newly purchased Short S.8 Calcutta flying boats; even then the passengers were transported by train from Paris to the Mediterranean where the Short flying boats were. In February 1931 a weekly service between London and Tanganyika was started as part of the proposed route to Cape Town and in April an investigational London-Australia air mail flight took place; the mail was transferred at the Netherlands East Indies, and took 26 days in total to reach Sydney. The purchase of the 8 Handley Page 42 four-engine airliners boosted the series of services; in 1932 the service to Africa was extensive to Cape Town.