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By 1930 airlines
like Lufthansa, QANTAS, SWISSAIR, VARIG, VASP, UNITED, AMERICAN, TWA,
SABENA, KLM and Imperial Airways (later BOAC) were flying across a wide
network of air-routes with regular services across the world.
The early post-Great War aircraft had been
replaced with multi-engined aircraft specially designed for airline
service and carrying many tens of passengers per flight.
The first modern-looking sleek metal
airliners also came into service in the 1930s.
Arguably the most important airliner that came from pre-World War Two
designers was the Douglas DC-3.
Europe introduced several important
new airliners in 1938/39, notably the
Savoia-Marchetti 73/83 airliners. Were it not for the war these planes
would most likely have become commonly used by European airlines. Due to
the war the post-war airliner that took the airline market was to be
American-made.
The nature of airline operations
showed hopeful signs of long-haul possibilities in the 1930s when Pan
American Airways and Imperial Airways competed in trans-oceanic services
using large flying boat airliners. This would give important experience
for the wartime operations over the Atlantic and for post-war airline
operations.
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Armstrong Whitworth Aw.15
Atalanta
Airline: Imperial Airways (1934) Country: UK
17 passengers
4 A-S Serval engines
125 mph cruise
Span 90 feet
Length 71 feet |
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Armstrong Whitworth
Aw.27 Ensign
Airline: Imperial Airways (1938) Country:
UK
40 passengers
4 A-S Tiger engines
170 mph cruise
Span 123 feet
Length 114 feet
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Barkley Grew
T8P1
Airline: Mackenzie Air Services (1934)
Country: Canada
6 passengers
2 Pratt & Whitney Wasp Junior engines
204 mph cruise
Span 52 feet
Length 37 feet |
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Bloch 120
Airline: Regie Melgache (1937) Country: France
10 passengers
3 Lorraine Algol engines
124 mph cruise
Span 67 feet
Length 51 feet
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Bloch 220
Airline: Air France (1938) Country: France
16 passengers
2 GR. 14N.16 engines
186 mph cruise
Span 75 feet
Length 64 feet
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Boeing
247D
Airline: United Air Lines (1932) Country: USA
10 passengers
2 Pratt & Whitney 1340 engines
160 mph cruise
Span 74 feet
Length 54 feet |
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Boeing
314 Clipper
Airline: Pan American Airways System (1939) Country: USA
74 passengers
4 Wright Cyclone engines
165 mph cruise
Span 152 feet
Length 106 feet
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Curtiss
Condor
Airline: American Airways Country: USA
15 passengers
2 Wright Cyclone 1820 engines
167 mph cruise
Span 82 feet
Length 49 feet |
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De Havilland D.H.84 Dragon
Airline: Railway Air Services G-ACPX at Croydon Country: UK
6 passengers
2 d.h. Gipsy Major engines
114 mph cruise
Span 47 feet
Length 35 feet |
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