• Daimler Airway

When Aircraft Transport and Travel failed late in 1921 the Air Ministry called for tenders to operate the air service between London and Paris. Two enterprising transport men, Col. Frank Searle, managing director of Daimler Hire Ltd and formerly associated with London General Omnibus Co, and Major George Woods Humphery, previously general manager of Handley Page Transport, attempted to put together a bid. They were initially unsuccessful in raising all of the required £30,000 start-up capital, until Searle persuaded Birmingham Small Arms Co-Daimler to take up the interest. The Air Ministry accepted the proposals early in September 1921 and Daimler Airway was born. In fact, the famous motor manufacturer Daimler had been in the commercial aviation business since July 1919, when it launched an Air Hire division as a charter subsidiary of its established luxury limousine hire service.

Equipped with brand-new 9-seater DH.34 airliners, Daimler Airway began flying between Croydon and Paris on 2 April 1922 carrying newspapers, the first service being piloted by Capt. W G R ‘Ray’ Hinchliffe in G-EBBQ. Hinchliffe, a highly-decorated wartime pilot, had been chief pilot for the newly-formed KLM and went on to a brief but illustrious career before his untimely death in March 1928 when his aircraft went missing off Newfoundland while attempting an eastbound Atlantic crossing. On 6 April 1922 G-EBBQ force-landed in northern France with a seized engine, turned over and had to be returned home by sea for repairs. But this paled into insignificance against the fate that befell DH.18A G-EAWO on the following day. Piloted by Robin Duke, and flying below the cloud base in poor visibility over northern France en-route to Paris, the aircraft collided head-on with a Farman Goliath of Grands Express Aeriens travelling in the opposite direction. This, the world’s first recorded commercial mid-air collision, which claimed the lives of all aboard, led to the adoption of a separation zone between London and Paris-bound flights.

Two more DH.34s were delivered by the end of April and on 1 May one of these aircraft, G-EBBS, became the first to complete two round trips to Paris in a single day, surpassing even this feat a month later by flying five single trips on the same day, largely because all the other DH.34s were undergoing repairs at the time. Between 13 April and 7 October 1922 this same aircraft made 332 flights over the London-Paris route, covering a total of 79,700 miles. Following an extensive survey flight in mid-September 1922, a regular service was opened to Berlin (Staaken) via Amsterdam, Bremen and Hamburg on 30 April 1923, eventually building up to a thrice-weekly frequency. This new route, flown in conjunction with Deutscher Aero-Lloyd, made connections northwards to Copenhagen and as far east as Moscow. During the winter of 1923 it was shortened via Rotterdam and Hanover, but dropping the popular intermediate halts resulted in a steady loss of traffic from a monthly total of over 200 down to zero by January 1924.

Some idea of the economics can be gauged from the fact that with fares of £6.10s single, net receipts in 1922-3 were just £1,269 against an expenditure of £13,572 for the total of 63,733 miles flown over the route. Meanwhile, the revised government subsidy scheme had awarded Daimler Manchester (Didsbury/Alexandra Park)-London-Amsterdam, first flown on 23 October 1922 by G-EBBS in a time of 4 hours 40 minutes. However, this redoubtable machine was finally lost on 14 September 1923, when flying from Manchester it crashed at Ivinghoe Beacon in the Chilterns after stalling while attempting a precautionary landing in bad weather.

Following the Hambling Committee’s recommendation for a single British airline company to represent Britain abroad, in common with Britain’s other major independent airlines, Daimler became part of Imperial Airways on 31 March 1924. During its brief life Daimler had been one of the more innovative airlines of the period, equipping its aircraft with the latest wireless equipment and introducing air stewards to its cabins. Daimler also developed the economic principal of high aircraft utilisation, based upon its experience with car hire, setting this figure at 1,000 hours annually per machine. This efficiency resulted in the airline making a £7,700 profit for 1922-3, after reimbursing £26,100 to the parent company for capital loaned, but allowing for government subsidy. Such was the company’s standing that upon selling out to Imperial Airways in 1924, it realised 50% profit on its capital.