Air Empire: British imperial civil aviation 1919-39

Abstract

The period between the First and Second World Wars saw the expansion of civil aviation in Europe and elsewhere. The rapidity with which aviation technology developed and the speed with which networks of air routes increasingly criss-crossed the skies is often forgotten in historical accounts of these two momentous decades. This was also a time of colonial reconfiguration, ideological struggles, and geopolitical fragility. Gordon Pirie journeys through debates over Britain's changing imperial role by analysing the changing landscape of Empire through the lens of civil aviation. In 1919, air services were few and far between, and Empire was connected by sea routes; by 1939, British air passengers could fly Imperial Airways to Egypt in 30 hours, South Africa in five days, and Australia in an unprecedented eight days (p. 225). Pirie's book presents the reader with an exhaustive and insightful account of the rise – and eventual fall – of imperial civil aviation in the 1920s and 1930s, focusing on British air services.

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