back to 062w-G Imperial Airways Frobisher Class Liner G-AFDI (1939)
Frobisher Class Liner
Courtesy of
Airline History
on the closed down website: http://www.airline-history.co.za
Imperial Airways
Imperial Airways Ltd began on 31 March 1924 after the Hambling Committee, appointed to look into British air travel by the government, decided to offer the current British airlines a subsidy of one million pounds over ten years to merge into a unified national airline. The stipulations were that the new airline must only use heavier-than-air machines (aircraft rather than airships) and these machines must be of British design.At that time Britain had four carriers operating to Europe...
These four airlines merged to form
Imperial Airways Ltd making Britain the first country to form a national airline. The aircraft were old and of little real value for the route network that was being considered for the new airline. Imperial Airways Ltd never really made a success of European routes although it had a scheduled network to Paris, Brussels, Cologne, Basle and Zurich from 1924
De Havilland DH.91
Albatross set new speed records
Imperial Airways Ltd
never really lived up to
the ideals that set it up in 1924. Air France, KLM and Deutsche Luft Hansa were
well ahead in Europe. It was concluded that the airline's poor standing among
its competitors was due to poor relations with its staff, inefficient operations
and obselete equipment. Recommendations were made that the airline should
continue to operate the long-haul routes but the European routes should be
passed on to the newer and more competitive British Airways who had a more
modern fleet. This despite the fact that the airline's original terms of
reference did not demand that it commercial battles with foreign airlines.
Unfortunately then, as now, the airline business is a highly competitive one.
De Havilland DH.91
Albatross at Croydon
Shortly after this a further decision was made to merge
Imperial Airways Ltd and British Airways into a new state-owned
national airline and so British Overseas Airways Corporation - B.O.A.C. - was
formed on 24 November 1939 and Imperial Airways
Ltd ceased to exist.
Despite the failure of Sunday, June 09, 2002 9:09 AM
the following message was received:
Dear Mr Boland
I attach two Jpg images of the Frobisher Class Albatross aircraft. These images were taken in the late 1930s and so I have no copyright information. I would guess that the airborne dh91 was taken by the airline itself (now British Airways). The picture at Croydon is clearly a camera on a tripod and was more than likely also taken as an advertising image by the airline.
If you wanted to link to this page on the history website I would prefer you linked to the main page. This is because pages on the website do change from time to time as I make changes (and Imperial is due for a major redesign with more information and better images).
Best wishes
Ms Sarah Ward - Airline History Admin
Airline History website - www.airline-history.co.za
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