By chance, I heard a snippet on a news programme yesterday, mentioning that Pathe News had uploaded thousands of hours of newsreels onto YouTube. So I wondered what might shed more light on the Imperial Airways flying boat service.
Just putting in ‘Pathe News Imperial Airways” and “Pathe News Flying Boat” into the YouTube search box brought up over a hundred hits. Most of these are not flying boats, or even Imperial Airways, and many are post-war. But some of the land plane items are of interest since they feature people named in Geoffrey’s memoirs–Captain Hinchcliffe, Major Brackley, and features on Croydon Airport, and more. These look like the most promising to me; I haven’t watched them yet, and I hope the links work for you.
- ‘Giant British Liner’ Hannibal in 1930
- Imperial Airways, the definitive newsreel history 1924 – 1939
- New Empire Flying Boat leaves Sydney (1938)
- Flying Boat Cambria (1938)
- News in a Nutshell – another flying boat tried out at Rochester (1936)
- ‘Two Way Flight Triumph (1937)’ appears to be Caledonia flying to and from Ireland.
- Royal Aeronautical Garden Party 1938 – a new Empire flying boat flies overhead
- Empire Airmail to Australia and New Zealand (1938)
- Air Hotel Takes Off (1936) – Canopus
Obviously my interest is very narrow, and there is a wealth of information there on all sorts of planes and other newsreel subjects. I hope you find something of interest in the collection.
Thanks for this – my own research into Imperial Airways seems to hit so many cul de sac’s. I will take a look. Love the book (bought several digital copies) and the website.
Hi Keith – yes things do tend to go round in circles – I suspect because there was only limited information circulating, and also because the age of those who promoted it. I got the impression from the Croydon seminar last year that a new generation was getting interested in the history of flying.
Have you seen that Solent Sky museum has got lottery funding for its proposed Flying Boat project? I’ve updated the link to their post about it. The announcement was on the home page.