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Aviation History
1939
1939 - 1857.PDF
6l2 \f^sm JUNE 15, 1939 Enterprise : Hillman's Air ways' first D.H. Dragon arrives at Romford Aero drome in December 1932. The type was largely designed to the late Mr. Edward Hill- man's specification. Six years later : One of the British Airways' Lockheed 14s, which are used for the Budapest, Warsaw and Zurich services. twelve-passenger f o u r- engined D.H. 86s were commissioned, and for the Belgian routes twin- engined D.H. Rapides were brought into ser vice. The company had, in fact, become the largest unsubsidised air operating company in Great Britain. During the latter part of the summer season of 1935 the number of pas sengers carried was more than 1,200 a month. The other companies in the amalgamation were Spartan Airlines and United Airways. The first named was a private company formed in Feb ruary, 1933, and operated services between London and the Isle of Wight; the second, United Airways, was formed in April, 1934, and served London, Liverpool, Blackpool, Morecambe, Carlisle, Belfast and the Isle ot Alan. High land Airways was formed in 1933 and operated routes which served in Aberdeen, Inverness, Wick, Kirkwall and Lerwick. In May, 1934, this company carried the first mails in the British Isles to go by air without surcharge. Northern and Scottish Airways operated services linking Glasgow, Campbeltown and Islay, and additional services to the Isle of Man and the Outer Hebrides. The company was formed in November, 1934. These, then, were the unsubsidised airline companies associated in the formation of British Airways in October, 1935- In February, 1936, the Government announced that it would pay a subsidy to British Airways for a passenger and mail service between London and Scandinavia. The first service duly left on February 17, and a month later the route was opened for the carriage of mails. This service made history, for by it were carried the first letters and postcards ever to be flown out of England without surcharge. The route was by Amsterdam, Hamburg and Copenhagen to Malmo. On July 1 it was extended to Stockholm. On July 27 the first and only British night mail service to the Continent wras opened by British Air ways. Letters travelling by this service again bore no surcharge. The next step was the amalgamation of British Con tinental Airways with British Airways on August 1. This progressive company had previously run services to Scan dinavia, Lille, Brussels, Antwerp, Amsterdam, Ostende and Le Zoute, and also over the Liverpool-Doncaster- Amsterdam route in conjunction with K.L.M. April, 1937, saw the first Lockheed 10A or Electra flying on British Airways' routes, and August saw the extension of the London-Cologne-Hanover night-mail route to Berlin. This followed a new agreement between the company and the Government which provided, inter alia, for the opera tion of a regular night mail service between London and Berlin in conjunction with D.L.H. and for the survey of an air route to West Africa with a view ultimately to the regular operation of a service to South America. The winter programme for 1937-8 omitted the stop at Amsterdam on the Scandinavian service, and thus made possible a three-hour schedule for the flight from London to Hamburg. This, in turn, with the summer extension from Malmo to Stockholm in 1938, gave a journey time from London to Stockholm of just on seven hours, and can be treated as a preliminary to still faster services this year to Warsaw and Budapest, with stops only at Berlin and Frankfurt respectively. The Present Day In the latter part of 1937 and during 1938 surveys were carried out and reports submitted on the route to West Africa and South America. So far, no definite action appears to have been taken on these reports. Certainly, the development of such a service will be one of the more urgent tasks to be undertaken by the new Government Corporation which is to combine the interests of British Airways and Imperial Airways. A certain measure of co-operation between the two com panies is already apparent this summer, and is all to the good where there is strong foreign competition to be met —as on the London-Paris route. British Airways and Im perial Airways, in conjunction, are operating eight services a day, " every two hours on the hour " from London. The flying time is seventy minutes, the fastest ever scheduled between the two capitals On the London-Basle-Zurich route Lockheed 14s, introduced by British Airways, are being used for the British part of the joint service with Swissair. This type is also being used to Warsaw and Budapest, while Lockheed Electras continue to fly the Scandinavian service and are used also on British Airways' new Brussels service, while D.H.91, or Frobisher-type. machines fly the joint service between London and Paris.
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