100yrs British Airways
Discussion
Not TOO bad.
Lot's of silly little errors though. BEA stood for British European AIRWAYS, not British European AIRLINES.
They also showed shots of BOAC aircraft in their early 1960s colours when covering the hijack event of 1970.
I'd like to have seen a bit more about the pioneering flying boat operations carried out by Imperial Airways in the 1930s. There was hardly any mention of the routes down through Africa and out to the Far East and Australia.
On the same score, there could have been a mention of the North Atlantic operations which were begun with the Empire flying boats in the months before the wear started and of the North Atlantic flights that were conducted by BOAC during World War 2. Indeed, the C Class Empire flying boats, which were the flagship of the Imperial Airways fleet, got no mention at all.
And if I was an ex-employee of the other airlines that were merged into the new British Airways in 1974 I'd be a bit annoyed (Cambrian Airways, Northeast Airways).
Lot's of silly little errors though. BEA stood for British European AIRWAYS, not British European AIRLINES.
They also showed shots of BOAC aircraft in their early 1960s colours when covering the hijack event of 1970.
I'd like to have seen a bit more about the pioneering flying boat operations carried out by Imperial Airways in the 1930s. There was hardly any mention of the routes down through Africa and out to the Far East and Australia.
On the same score, there could have been a mention of the North Atlantic operations which were begun with the Empire flying boats in the months before the wear started and of the North Atlantic flights that were conducted by BOAC during World War 2. Indeed, the C Class Empire flying boats, which were the flagship of the Imperial Airways fleet, got no mention at all.
And if I was an ex-employee of the other airlines that were merged into the new British Airways in 1974 I'd be a bit annoyed (Cambrian Airways, Northeast Airways).
There were other aspects that would have been interesting to comment on - such as the government's insistence that Imperial Airways only order British built and designed aircraft - which naturally meant that Imperial did not always get the latest and best airliner technology.
When the original 1930s British Airways Limited came into being, it was allowed order from whoever it liked - which of course largely meant buying American. That is why when Chamberlain flew out and back on his Munich trips to meet Hitler and Mussolini, he flew in a Lockheed 14.
When British Airways and Imperial merged to form BOAC, the restriction on only ordering British built airliners was lifted. That is why BOAC operated a number of American types.
I agree about BEA. They hardly got a look in - even though they were a crucial airline between 1946 and 1974. And Cambrian and BKS/Northeast didn't get mentioned at all.
It seems that BA was formed out of Imperial and BOAC - and that was about it.
When the original 1930s British Airways Limited came into being, it was allowed order from whoever it liked - which of course largely meant buying American. That is why when Chamberlain flew out and back on his Munich trips to meet Hitler and Mussolini, he flew in a Lockheed 14.
When British Airways and Imperial merged to form BOAC, the restriction on only ordering British built airliners was lifted. That is why BOAC operated a number of American types.
I agree about BEA. They hardly got a look in - even though they were a crucial airline between 1946 and 1974. And Cambrian and BKS/Northeast didn't get mentioned at all.
It seems that BA was formed out of Imperial and BOAC - and that was about it.
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