Airlines, Aviation, Pioneers - History of flight - Britannica
History of flight - Airlines, Aviation, Pioneers: One of the earliest airline organizations, a British group called Air Transport and Travel, Ltd., ...
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[history of flight](https://www.britannica.com/technology/history-of-flight)

Table of Contents


- [Introduction](/technology/history-of-flight)

- [The invention of the airplane](/technology/history-of-flight#ref260577)



- [Construction of the sustaining wings: the problem of lift](/technology/history-of-flight/Construction-of-the-sustaining-wings-the-problem-of-lift)

- [The generation and application of power: the problem of propulsion](/technology/history-of-flight/The-generation-and-application-of-power-the-problem-of-propulsion)

- [Balancing and steering the machine: the problem of control](/technology/history-of-flight/The-generation-and-application-of-power-the-problem-of-propulsion#ref260580)

- [Other aviation pioneers](/technology/history-of-flight/Other-aviation-pioneers)

- [List of select pioneer aircraft](/technology/history-of-flight/Other-aviation-pioneers#ref275078)

- [Pistons in the air](/technology/history-of-flight/Other-aviation-pioneers#ref260582)



- [The headliners](/technology/history-of-flight/Other-aviation-pioneers#ref260583)

- [The first airlines](/technology/history-of-flight/The-first-airlines)

- [From airmail to airlines in the United States](/technology/history-of-flight/From-airmail-to-airlines-in-the-United-States)

- [The aeronautical infrastructure](/technology/history-of-flight/The-aeronautical-infrastructure)

- [Wartime legacies](/technology/history-of-flight/The-aeronautical-infrastructure#ref260587)

- [Postwar airlines](/technology/history-of-flight/The-aeronautical-infrastructure#ref260588)

- [General aviation](/technology/history-of-flight/General-aviation)

- [The jet age](/technology/history-of-flight/The-jet-age)



- [Origins](/technology/history-of-flight/The-jet-age#ref260591)

  - [First experiments](/technology/history-of-flight/The-jet-age#ref260592)

  - [World War II](/technology/history-of-flight/The-jet-age#ref260593)

- [The jet enters the civilian world](/technology/history-of-flight/The-jet-enters-the-civilian-world)

  - [Technical advantages and challenges](/technology/history-of-flight/The-jet-enters-the-civilian-world#ref260595)

  - [The airlines reequip](/technology/history-of-flight/The-jet-enters-the-civilian-world#ref260596)

  - [Progress in engines and airframes](/technology/history-of-flight/Progress-in-engines-and-airframes)

    - [Airliners](/technology/history-of-flight/Progress-in-engines-and-airframes#ref260598)

    - [Business aircraft](/technology/history-of-flight/Progress-in-engines-and-airframes#ref260599)

  - [Avionics, passenger support, and safety](/technology/history-of-flight/Avionics-passenger-support-and-safety)

- [Turbine-powered helicopters](/technology/history-of-flight/Avionics-passenger-support-and-safety#ref260601)

[References & Edit History](https://www.britannica.com/technology/history-of-flight/additional-info) [Related Topics](/facts/history-of-flight)

[Images & Videos](https://www.britannica.com/technology/history-of-flight/images-videos)

[![Leonardo da Vinci's flying machine](https://cdn.britannica.com/40/96240-004-A9CAD60A/flying-machine-Leonardo-da-Vinci-plans-ornithopter.jpg)](https://cdn.britannica.com/40/96240-050-142CC589/flying-machine-Leonardo-da-Vinci-plans-ornithopter.jpg)[![Wright flyer, 1905](https://cdn.britannica.com/28/166928-004-EA9D64C6/Wright-brothers-flying-machine-controls-Huffman-Prairie-October-4-1905.jpg)](https://cdn.britannica.com/28/166928-050-56FE97A6/Wright-brothers-flying-machine-controls-Huffman-Prairie-October-4-1905.jpg)[![George Cayley's glider, 1853](https://cdn.britannica.com/12/99712-004-F6E5F2CC/George-Cayley-glider-English-notion-aircraft-flight-1853.jpg)](https://cdn.britannica.com/12/99712-050-61C19763/George-Cayley-glider-English-notion-aircraft-flight-1853.jpg)[![Lilienthal glider](https://cdn.britannica.com/51/99051-004-5578BCAA/Otto-Lilienthal-German-one-gliders-1895.jpg)](https://cdn.britannica.com/51/99051-050-CB87FFA1/Otto-Lilienthal-German-one-gliders-1895.jpg)[![Wright glider](https://cdn.britannica.com/33/18933-004-E91B5FE4/Wilbur-Wright-banking-turn-right-glider-North-October-24-1902.jpg)](https://cdn.britannica.com/33/18933-004-E91B5FE4/Wilbur-Wright-banking-turn-right-glider-North-October-24-1902.jpg)[![Langley aerodrome of 1903](https://cdn.britannica.com/05/99705-004-232D7A6A/launch-aerodrome-houseboat-Samuel-Pierpont-Langley-Potomac-Oct-7-1903.jpg)](https://cdn.britannica.com/05/99705-004-232D7A6A/launch-aerodrome-houseboat-Samuel-Pierpont-Langley-Potomac-Oct-7-1903.jpg)[![first flight by Orville Wright, December 17, 1903](https://cdn.britannica.com/38/4738-004-F9A19A6F/Orville-Wright-history-airplane-flight-Kill-Devil-December-17-1903.jpg)](https://cdn.britannica.com/38/4738-050-C1D653C7/Orville-Wright-history-airplane-flight-Kill-Devil-December-17-1903.jpg)[![Pilcher Hawk](https://cdn.britannica.com/14/99714-004-F947FADB/Percy-Sinclair-Pilcher-Hawk-English-wings-1896.jpg)](https://cdn.britannica.com/14/99714-004-F947FADB/Percy-Sinclair-Pilcher-Hawk-English-wings-1896.jpg)[![Santos-Dumont and his No. 14-bis](https://cdn.britannica.com/23/99723-004-489FF64E/Alberto-Santos-Dumont-flights-Brazilian-Europe-airplane-1906.jpg)](https://cdn.britannica.com/23/99723-050-264626E9/Alberto-Santos-Dumont-flights-Brazilian-Europe-airplane-1906.jpg)[![Louis Blériot and Type XI monoplane](https://cdn.britannica.com/55/76155-004-A426D5A7/Louis-Bleriot-monoplane-Type-XI-English-Channel-July-25-1909.jpg)](https://cdn.britannica.com/55/76155-050-C76325AA/Louis-Bleriot-monoplane-Type-XI-English-Channel-July-25-1909.jpg)

Quizzes


[![Close-up profile view of American aviator Amelia Earhart sitting in the cockpit of a helicopter. Earhart wears a bomber jacket and flight goggles on her head.](https://cdn.britannica.com/76/164576-131-6B4BA221/Amelia-Earhart.jpg?w=200&h=200&c=crop)](/quiz/early-aviation)

[Early Aviation](/quiz/early-aviation)

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Contents


[Science](/browse/Science)[Physics](/browse/Physics)[Matter & Energy](/browse/Matter-Energy)

## The first [airlines](https://www.britannica.com/topic/airline)

in [history of flight](https://www.britannica.com/technology/history-of-flight) in [Pistons in the air](/technology/history-of-flight/Other-aviation-pioneers#ref260582)



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- [NASA - History of Flight](https://www.grc.nasa.gov/www/k-12/UEET/StudentSite/historyofflight.html)
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Written by


[Walter James Boyne\
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Former director, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., 1983–86. Author of _The Leading Edge_ and many others.](/contributor/Walter-James-Boyne/3907)

Walter James Boyne,

[Roger E. Bilstein\
\
Emeritus Professor of History, University of Houston-Clear Lake. Author of _The Enterprise of Flight_ and others.](/contributor/Roger-E-Bilstein/5978)

Roger E. Bilstein• [All](https://www.britannica.com/technology/history-of-flight/additional-info#contributors)

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One of the earliest airline organizations, a [British](https://www.britannica.com/place/United-Kingdom) group called Air Transport and Travel, Ltd., acquired several Airco D.H.4a VIII single-engine planes (designed by [Geoffrey De Havilland](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Geoffrey-De-Havilland)), powered by 350-horsepower Eagle V-type engines from [Rolls-Royce Ltd.](https://www.britannica.com/money/Rolls-Royce-PLC), and modified them to include an enclosed cramped space in the fuselage with room for two adventurous passengers. The pilot’s cockpit, atop the fuselage, remained open. The company’s inaugural flight occurred on Aug. 25, 1919, when the plane flew from London to Paris with its sole passenger, an enterprising newspaper reporter. The service caught on and competitors soon followed. Handley Page Transport, Ltd., made use of the manufacturing company’s wartime twin-engine bombers, converting them to haul up to 14 passengers, who lounged in comfortable wicker chairs. These slow but roomy aircraft established a tradition of ornately embellished interiors and spacious surroundings—at the sacrifice of aerodynamic [efficiency](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/efficiency) and high speeds—on early European airlines. Given the lack of navigational aids and the primitive instrumentation of the era, accidents invariably occurred, and passengers became used to delays caused by the notoriously foul winter weather in England. Pilots had to depend on luck and quick thinking when they were caught in unexpected atmospheric conditions. Approaching London in the fog, one British pilot suddenly realized he had drifted too close to the ground when a church steeple loomed out of the mist at his eye level. Fortunately, he noticed that express trains speeding toward London left a visible furrow in the [dense](https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/dense) fog bank, and he gratefully followed this phenomenon into the city, where he found improved conditions for landing. By 1924, with government support, independent airlines in Britain had consolidated into one entity, Imperial Airways Ltd., as a means to compete with the heavily subsidized French airlines in Europe.

[![](https://cdn.britannica.com/21/99721-050-58F9EAE5/Imperial-Airways-Ltd-employees-airliner-Handley-Page-1931.jpg?w=300)](https://cdn.britannica.com/21/99721-050-58F9EAE5/Imperial-Airways-Ltd-employees-airliner-Handley-Page-1931.jpg)

[Handley Page H.P.42 airliner, 1931](https://cdn.britannica.com/21/99721-050-58F9EAE5/Imperial-Airways-Ltd-employees-airliner-Handley-Page-1931.jpg) Imperial Airways Ltd. employees refueling a Handley Page H.P.42 airliner at Semakh on the Sea of Galilee, 1931.(more)

The British also used airlines to knit together elements of their far-flung empire. During the 1920s, Imperial Airways mounted operations in Africa and the [Middle East](https://www.britannica.com/place/Middle-East). Across trackless stretches of sparsely inhabited desert, creative surveyor crews shrewdly drove cars and trucks to create a visible track for pilots to follow; in some areas, they plowed furrows in the ground. Into the late 1930s, standard equipment on these routes was the stately [Handley Page H.P.42](https://www.britannica.com/technology/Handley-Page-HP42), a biplane having a wingspan of 130 feet (40 metres) and four 490-horsepower Bristol Jupiter engines. Depending on seating arrangements, 24 to 38 passengers cruised along at about 100 miles (160 km) per hour over the plane’s 500-mile (800-km) range. The airline scheduled several days (including overnight stops) to travel from London to the Cape of [South Africa](https://www.britannica.com/place/South-Africa) by air, compared with some weeks by steamship. The route’s [clientele](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/clientele) characteristically included well-placed colonial officials and wealthy business travelers who expected first-class service. Consequently, the H.P.42’s passenger cabin featured dimensions nearly equal to the size of a Pullman railway car, and patrons appreciated plush wall-to-wall carpeting and a stand-up bar. Attentive [stewards](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/stewards) served seven-course meals.

[France](https://www.britannica.com/place/France) also had territorial possessions in Africa as well as important business interests in [Latin America](https://www.britannica.com/place/Latin-America). Consequently, French airlines ran along the Mediterranean coast of Spain, over to Morocco, and down the western coast of Africa as far as Dakar, Seneg. The routes took planes and crews over some of the most inhospitable areas of northwest Africa, where native tribesmen maintained strong [prejudices](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/prejudices) against Europeans. Forced down in the desert, some French airmen were killed, and others were carted off in cages to be held as hostages for ransom. [Antoine de Saint-Exupéry](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Antoine-de-Saint-Exupery), the famed aviator and author, became successful as a field manager in Africa, donning native garb and negotiating peace with local tribal chiefs. A bewildering variety of planes from [Henri Farman](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Henri-Farman), [Louis-Charles Bréguet](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Louis-Charles-Breguet), [Pierre Latécoère](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Pierre-Latecoere), and others equipped domestic and international airlines. By the 1930s, the French had also established operations in [South America](https://www.britannica.com/place/South-America) and begun to experiment with mail deliveries across the South Atlantic.

In 1919 the Netherlands organized a new airline, [KLM](https://www.britannica.com/money/KLM), and began service between London and Amsterdam using aircraft built by [Anthony Fokker](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Anthony-Herman-Gerard-Fokker). (KLM now proudly claims the title of the world’s oldest continuously operating airline.) By 1930, KLM offered weekly service to Batavia (now Jakarta), the colonial capital of the [Dutch East Indies](https://www.britannica.com/place/Dutch-East-Indies), and competed with [Imperial](https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/Imperial) Airways in the Far East. Pioneering air services also sprang up in Africa, Asia, and Australia.

[![](https://cdn.britannica.com/85/209385-050-C4D37BC1/lufthansa-airplane-and-storm-troopers.jpg?w=300)](https://cdn.britannica.com/85/209385-050-C4D37BC1/lufthansa-airplane-and-storm-troopers.jpg)

[Lufthansa airplane in Berlin, 1935](https://cdn.britannica.com/85/209385-050-C4D37BC1/lufthansa-airplane-and-storm-troopers.jpg) German soldiers lined up alongside a Lufthansa airplane displaying Nazi insignia at the Tempelhof airport in Berlin, January 1935.(more)

[Germany](https://www.britannica.com/place/Germany), prevented by the [Treaty of Versailles](https://www.britannica.com/event/Treaty-of-Versailles-1919) from developing [military aircraft](https://www.britannica.com/technology/military-aircraft), poured considerable effort into civilian designs. The German government also gave its blessing to the expansionist plans of Deutsche Luft Hansa (now [Deutsche Lufthansa Ag](https://www.britannica.com/money/Lufthansa)), formed in 1926. [Hugo Junkers](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Hugo-Junkers)’s firm supplied a steady stream of low-wing single- and three-engine planes, clad in corrugated metal, that survived for decades in obscure corners of the world. Meanwhile, German airliners became regular callers throughout central and eastern Europe, with routes that extended as far east as Moscow. Other segments of Lufthansa covered Scandinavia and the Baltic; still others ran to the eastern Mediterranean and down to Baghdad. By the mid-1930s, Germany operated the largest commercial airline network in Europe.

Out of the [chaos](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/chaos) of [World War I](https://www.britannica.com/event/World-War-I), imperial Russia emerged as the [Union of Soviet Socialist Republics](https://www.britannica.com/place/Soviet-Union). The communist regime soon seized on [aviation](https://www.britannica.com/technology/aviation) as an icon of a new technical world to be shaped by the industrial proletariat. [Aeroflot](https://www.britannica.com/money/Aeroflot), the state airline, not only served [propaganda](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/propaganda) purposes but subsequently emerged as an indispensable medium for rapid [transportation](https://www.britannica.com/technology/transportation-technology) and a visible means of knitting together the sprawling, divergent regions of the Soviet Union. Although the Soviet regime occasionally purchased western [technology](https://www.britannica.com/technology/technology), its commissars emphasized the use of [indigenous](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/indigenous) equipment in order to be free of invidious capitalistic influences. Consequently, Soviet engine and aircraft design bureaus, like that run by Oleg Antonov, turned out hundreds of planes for use on Aeroflot’s vast internal airway system.