Aviation and Empire : The British African Experience, 1919-1939

Abstract

The period 1919-1939 was the pioneer age of air transport, the newest and most promising of man's efforts to improve and accelerate his means of transport and communications. The agent of that purpose was the aeroplane, no longer the mere 'contraption' of the decade before World War I nor simply the fighting machine which had proved itself so ably during the war. In Great Britain, the aeroplane brought a new dimension to the vision of empire, its task to link the British world with a chain of imperial air communications. After 1924 and the formation of Great Britain's 'chosen instrument', Imperial Airways, British air efforts were directed to the establishment of air routes and services to India, the Far East, and to South Africa, the latter goal to bring much of British Africa within the compass of imperial air transport development. The task in British Africa was especially difficult. Government parsimony, public apathy, and the challenge of the African environment all troubled the progress of air transport for more than a decade. Nonetheless, by 1932, the Cape Town route was established. Challenged throughout Africa by Belgium, France, Germany, Italy and South Africa in a 'scramble' not unlike the pattern in the late nineteenth century, Great Britain still triumphed. By 1939, British Africa was being served by a growing network of air services provided by Imperial Airways, Rhodesian and Nyasaland Airways, Wilson Airways in East Africa, and South African Airways in the Union. With the West African situation an exception, success rather than failure colored the British air transport thrust into Africa. British Africa now had the foundations upon which to build and the means to meet the challenges and demands of air transport development in the future. vi