Empire Air Mail Scheme (EAMS) was an attempt by the British
Air Ministry
The Air Ministry was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom with the responsibility of managing the affairs of the Royal Air Force, that existed from 1918 to 1964. It was under the political authority of the Secretary of State ...
to regain leadership of world civil aviation in the late 1930s following the establishment of
The Air Mail Route
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...
from Cairo to Bagdad in the early 1920s. Conceived in 1934 by
Sir Eric Geddes
Sir Eric Campbell Geddes (26 September 1875 – 22 June 1937) was a British businessman and Conservative politician. With a background in railways, he served as head of Military Transportation on the Western Front, with the rank of major-ge ...
, chairman of
Imperial Airways
Imperial Airways was the early British commercial long-range airline, operating from 1924 to 1939 and principally serving the British Empire routes to South Africa, India, Australia and the Far East, including Malaya and Hong Kong. Passenger ...
, EAMS sought to greatly expand British civil aviation by shifting all 'first class' mail within the British Empire by air. Imperial Airways was a private company, but like most airlines of the era, relied on public subsidies (in this case, from the Air Ministry) to support its operations.
A critical driving force behind EAMS was
Sir Christopher Llewellyn Bullock, ,
Permanent Under-Secretary
A permanent secretary (also known as a principal secretary) is the most senior civil servant of a department or ministry charged with running the department or ministry's day-to-day activities. Permanent secretaries are the non-political civil ...
at the
British Air Ministry
The Air Ministry was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom with the responsibility of managing the affairs of the Royal Air Force, that existed from 1918 to 1964. It was under the political authority of the Secretary of State ...
from 1931 to 1936. Appointed at the age of 38, he remains one of the youngest
civil servants
The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...
to have headed a British Government department.
EAMS was a hugely expensive plan, and to make it financially acceptable to the British Government, subsidies were required to support it from the dominions (especially South Africa, India and Australia) and colonies of the Empire. In this way, EAMS served another of Geddes' aims, namely to prevent local Indian, South African and Australian operators from opening up international air routes.
Political agreement from within the Empire was finally reached in early 1937, after the Australians held out for a better financial deal. Australian aviation experts were deeply sceptical about the Scheme from the start, and were especially concerned that Imperial Airways had decided on the use of
flying boat
A flying boat is a type of fixed-winged seaplane with a hull, allowing it to land on water. It differs from a floatplane in that a flying boat's fuselage is purpose-designed for floatation and contains a hull, while floatplanes rely on fusela ...
s to operate the new services, even before final agreement was reached. Geddes preferred flying boats because he thought the cost of expanding airfields throughout the Empire would be too great, and the cost of fuel would be lower along the coastline in comparison with inland airfields.
The use of flying boats quickly exposed the frailties of the Scheme once it became operational. The first service from
Alexandria
Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandria ...
,
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
began in December 1936, and that to
Durban
Durban ( ) ( zu, eThekwini, from meaning 'the port' also called zu, eZibubulungwini for the mountain range that terminates in the area), nicknamed ''Durbs'',Ishani ChettyCity nicknames in SA and across the worldArticle on ''news24.com'' from ...
, South Africa commenced the following year.
However, the service to Australia did not begin until July 1938, owing to difficulties in building alighting stations in the difficult geographic and climatic conditions in northern Australia. The Short C Class Empire flying boats were easily damaged.
In December 1938, the Scheme was in crisis, as some Shorts flying boats were out of service due to accidents, while the cheap subsidised mail rates offered to the public attracted a flood of letters that the British Air Ministry never expected. To shift this huge quantity of mail while their own fleet steadily diminished, Imperial Airways scoured Europe for aircraft on short term leases, including American Douglas airliners from Swissair.
An official review of the Scheme in early 1939 then concluded that the amount of mail to be carried at peak times like the Christmas season could never be lifted without an uneconomic number of 'reserve' aircraft that would then be idle for the rest of the year.
The outbreak of the war in September 1939 brought the Scheme to an end; by then, British officials had concluded the original selection of flying boats was a mistake, and British aviation needed to shift back to landplanes.
However, the demands of war prevented British industry from building new prototype landplanes for which orders had been placed, the
Fairey FC1 and the
Short S.32
The Short S.32 was a British four-engined all-metal long-range transport monoplane designed by Short Brothers to List of Air Ministry specifications, Air Ministry Specification 14/38. The project was abandoned in May 1940. If produced, it would ...
.
References
Bibliography
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*{{cite journal , last=Smith , first=Richard , title=The Intercontinental Airliner and the Essence of Airplane Performance 1929–1939 , journal=Technology and Culture , volume=24 , issue=3 , date=1983 , pages=428–449
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