British Overseas Airways Corporation
On 24 November 1939, BOAC was created by Act of Parliament to become the British state airline, formed from the merger of Imperial Airways and British Airways Ltd. The companies had been operating together since war was declared on 3 September 1939, when their operations were evacuated from the London area to Bristol. On 1 April 1940, BOAC started operations as a single company. Following the Fall of France (22 June 1940), BOAC aircraft kept wartime Britain connected with its colonies and the allied world, often under enemy fire, and initially with desperate shortages of long-range aircraft. During the war, the airline was sometimes loosely referred to as 'British Airways', and aircraft and equipment were marked with combinations of that title and/or the Speedbird symbol and/or the Union Flag.
National Air Communications
From its headquarters at Whitchurch, NAC directed operations of the fleets of Imperial Airways and British Airways Ltd, to support the transportation of military personnel and supplies to France, and to continue basic overseas civilian services. The fleets operated by the smaller private companies were also directed by NAC, and variously used to maintain essential civilian services within the UK, but also for army co-operation duties and transportation of blood supplies, particularly to France. On 1 April 1940, British Airways Ltd and Imperial Airways Ltd were officially combined into a new company, BOAC (British Overseas Airways Corporation), that had already been formed on 24 November 1939 with retrospective financial arrangements. On 27 March, it was announced that many of the non-scheduled functions of NAC would be taken over by the RAF.