Charles Woodley - Flying Boats: Air Travel in the Golden Age

Front Cover: Aquila Airways Short Solent G-ANAJ City of Funchal taxies past steep cliffs during the inaugural flight to Capri in 1954. (via Dave Thaxter)

Back Cover:Top and Middle: Qantas posters promoting the airlines UKAustralia Empire flying-boat services. (Qantas Heritage Collection)

Bottom: An Aquila Airways luggage label. (Dave Thaxter)

First published 2018

The History Press

The Mill, Brimscombe Port

Stroud, Gloucestershire, GL5 2QG

www.thehistorypress.co.uk

Charles Woodley, 2018

The right of Charles Woodley to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without the permission in writing from the Publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 0 7509 7014 3

Typesetting and origination by The History Press

Printed and bound in Great Britain by TJ International Ltd

Throughout this book I have used the place names in use during the period covered. Many of them have changed in the intervening years and their modern-day versions are as follows:

Many people and organisations have kindly assisted me in the preparation of this book by sending me images, memories, information and good wishes for its success. They are listed below with my thanks, but if I have inadvertently omitted anyone I apologise and thank them once again.

Chris Smith at the Solent Sky Museum

Ron Cuskelly at the Queensland Air Museum

David Cheek at GKN Aerospace

Aimee Alexander at the Poole Flying Boat Celebration

Barry ONeill at the Foynes Flying Boat and Maritime Museum

Dave Thaxter at the British Caledonian website

Judy Noller at Ansett Public Relations

David Crotty, Curator, Qantas Heritage Collection

Doug Miller, webmaster at the Pan Am Historical Foundation

Kim Baker

Peter Maxfield

Felicity Laws

Elizabeth Malson

Beryl Cawood

Hilary Adams

Jeremy Cutler

Les Ellyatt

Peter Savage

Janet Beazley

Chris Mooney

Sue Marks

Paul Sheehan

Anthony Leyfeldt

Frank Stamford for his Lord Howe Island flying boats images

Jenny Scott at the State Library of South Australia

My friend Raul in Buenos Aires for finding me rare South American flying boat images

Amy Rigg at The History Press for her continuing faith in my abilities and her encouragement

And, of course, my wife Hazel.

At the beginning of the 1930s Britain ruled over an empire that spanned the globe, but travel between the mother country and its far-flung overseas possessions was a laborious and time-consuming process. The journey to Karachi (then in India) took some seven days and involved transfers between trains, ships and aircraft along the way. The need for speedier transportation of the all-important mail and the few passengers that accompanied it led to the setting up of the Empire Air Mail Scheme, whereby all mail to and from the Empire would be transported by air throughout at a government-subsidised standard rate. In order to accommodate the anticipated volume, larger and more modern airliners would be needed, and in response to a request for proposals the Empire-class flying boat designs emerged. Built by established flying boat manufacturer Short Bros, these would be capable of carrying the mail as well as a small number of cosseted passengers all the way to Africa, the Middle East and India in new standards of comfort. The lack of land airports and night-flying facilities along the routes would be bypassed by using marine facilities with long water take-off areas, and all flying would take place during the daylight hours, with the passengers spending the nights in luxury hotels or company-owned houseboats, all included in the fare. The introduction of the Empire-class flying boats by Britains state airline Imperial Airways certainly ushered in new standards of passenger comfort and attentive service, but the aircraft were still far from fast, the journey could be uncomfortably bumpy at times, and the fares were beyond the reach of the average working man.

In the meantime, on the other side of the Atlantic, the USAs overseas flag carrier airline Pan American Airways was operating smaller Sikorsky flying boats to the Caribbean islands, the West Indies, and down the coastline of South America. The airlines founder, Juan Trippe, had more ambitious plans though, for flying boat services across the Pacific to the Far East via Hawaii. Before such plans could become a reality, however, staging posts would have to be constructed on a string of small islands such as Wake and Midway along the route. The airline set to and installed refuelling facilities for its aircraft and luxury hotel accommodation for its passengers at these stopover points, and in due course the services were inaugurated, using a new generation of giant Martin and Boeing Clipper flying boats.

Both Imperial Airways and Pan American then turned their attention to the much trickier proposition of North Atlantic operations between Europe and the USA. The route involved battling against inclement weather conditions for much of the journey, and experiments were carried out to determine the practicality of in-flight refuelling to give the necessary range. Some experimental services were operated by both carriers in 1940, but further progress with operations across the Atlantic and the Pacific were then disrupted by the Second World War, which saw the airlines operating according to wartime priorities on behalf of their governments.