HISTORY:
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... The Instone Airline, ๔he Daimler Airway, British Marine Air Navigation Company (BMAN) and Handley Page Air Transport. These four airlines merged to form Imperial Airways 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 never really made a success of European routes although it had a scheduled network to Paris, Brussels, Cologne, Basle and Zurich from 1924 using the Handley Page W.8b aircraft that were originally owned by H.P.A.T. Imperial Airways didn't make much more progress until the 1930s on furthering the European network but concentrated on the long-haul routes to India and Africa.
22/6/1927
14/6/1938
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