India by Imperial Airways poster – Vintage Airline Travel Poster – Constable 1935
For the image on this fantastic India by Imperial Airways poster, the Australian artist William Constable offers us a bird’s eye view of India. We are soaring even higher than the plane that is carrying another group of travellers to the sprawling metropolis of India’s capital city, Delhi.
This vintage travel poster takes us on an interesting journey through time, with modern aviation technology contrasted against the timeless architecture of ancient civilisations. The mix of old meeting new is still a fascinating sight today. It must have seemed extraordinary at a time when air travel was still in its pioneering age.
You can almost hear the hum of the Imperial Airways Handley Paige HP42 aeroplane as it soars over the ancient city of Varanasi. The passengers inside can take in the view below them; Hindu temple spires reaching up towards the heavens, houseboats lined up along the river banks, and ships steaming their way up and down the River Ganges. Even from this height, they can make out the figures of local people on the water’s edge bathing in the Ghats of Varanasi or otherwise going about their daily lives.
Flying down the length of the River Ganges means the long journey is coming to an end. They have a couple more hours before they land in Delhi. Probably exhausted and excited in equal measure… the feeling we all still get when we finally reach our holiday destination.
The First Flights To India
Back in the 1930s, a flight to India was a long haul. Imperial Airways were the first airline company to offer the service with the first passenger flight from London to India taking off on 30 March 1929. The journey was made up of four distinct sections.
The first part of the journey was a flight in an Armstrong Whitworth Argosy aircraft. Taking off from London’s Croyden Airport, and flying via Paris to Basel. Because Italian authorities would not allow British aircraft to enter Italy via France, passengers would leave Basel for Genoa by train. Once at Genoa passengers would alight a Calcutta flying boat to be flown to Alexandria via Rome, Naples, Corfu, Athens, Suda Bay in Crete, and Tobruk. For the final leg of the journey, travellers would transfer to a DH66 Hercules aircraft. The aeroplane would fly from Alexandria to Delhi via Gaza, Rutbah Wells, Baghdad, Basra, Bushire, Lingeh, Jask – Gwadar, Karachi and Jodphur.
The pioneering journey took nearly seven days to complete! It may sound like a long time now but it was still four times faster than making the journey to Delhi by boat! By the time this vintage India by Imperial Airways poster was published in the mid-1930s the flight times had been reduced to around two and a half days. Today, non-stop flights to Delhi are made in about ten hours.
The Handley Paige HP42
Imperial Airways was a British commercial long-range air transport company, operating from 1924 to 1939. Imperial Airways was merged into the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) in 1939. From the beginning, one of Imperial Airways’ priorities was to connect the far-flung parts of the British Empire.
The aeroplane in the poster is an iconic Handley Page HP42, a British-made, four-engined airliner, which at the time was the largest airliner in regular use in 1931 and could carry up to 24 passengers. There were just four of these planes manufactured, along with four HP45s, which were very similar in construction, but offered the ability to carry more weight but for shorter distances. Each was given a name beginning with the letter H.
The Handley Page HP42 in Constable’s poster clearly shows lettering on its top wing, which identifies it as W-AAGX, which was the prototype plane, affectionately named Hannibal.
The eight aircraft accumulated a combined mileage of 10 million miles of air travel in a 9-year period. Sadly, none of the eight aircraft has survived, most having literally been blown over by high winds whilst still on the ground. Fortunately, the posters, although rare, have survived.
Other early pioneering aviation posters
The pioneer era of aviation was a thrilling time in history. It is widely considered the period spanning from the Wright Brothers’ successful powered flight on December 17, 1903, and the onset of World War I in August 1914. News of events and feats of accomplishments filled newspaper columns. moving pictures were shown at cinemas and theatres. Aviation captured the public’s imagination in a big way thanks in large part to daredevil pilots who risked their lives to push the boundaries. Pioneering aviators such as Orville and Wilbur Wright, Alberto Santos-Dumont, Louis Blierot, Charles Count de Lambert, Louis Paulhan, Jean Gobron, Hubert Latham, Henri Brégi, Henri Farman and Louis Gaudart Their daring experimental flights and record-breaking accomplishments made remarkable progress in aeroplane design and performance. This exciting era marked the beginning of modern aviation and set the stage for aviation’s significant role in the 20th century. Fortunately, for those interested in aviation, it also coincided with the advent of the colour poster that advertised events and air shows. Despite their fragility, it’s remarkable how posters have survived that advertised those early events over 100+ years ago. They are a great reminder of those early aeronautical events that helped pave the way for modern aviation.
Here we’ve selected ten of our favourite aviation posters that capture the spirit of innovation and adventure that defined this period.
The Wright Brothers – Dayton Ohio 1909
It seems fitting that we start with the famous American Wright Brothers they were after all the first to… well… get things off the ground. This vintage poster wasn’t designed to advertise an event it was, as the poster states, created for “The Nation, State and City to Welcome the World’s Greatest Aviators”. The poster captures the moment on June 17 and 18 1909 in Dayton, Ohio when they made the first controlled, sustained flight of a powered, heavier-than-air craft. This vintage aviation poster celebrates that two-day homecoming with the aeroplane shown high above the Ohio countryside.
ILA Luftschiffahrt Ausstellung Frankfurt Poster – Oppenheim – 1909
Created by the German artist Alfred Oppenheim, this vintage aviation poster was created to advertise the first International Luftschiffahrt Ausstellung Frankfurt in Germany. It features the magnificent structure Frankfurter Dom or Frankfurt Cathedral, the city’s largest building, as its backdrop. Around the Cathedral a variety of aircraft can be seen flying including a Voisin bi-plane. The 1907 Voisin biplane, was the first successful powered aircraft. It was used by the French aviator Henri Farman to make the first heavier-than-air flight lasting more than a minute in Europe, and also to make the first full circle. The International Aviation Exhibition Frankfurt 1909 was, at the time, the world’s largest and most important aviation exhibition.
Grande Semaine d’Aviation – Montaut – 1909
The Grande Semaine d’Aviation de la Champagne was an 8-day aviation meeting held near Reims in France between August 22 and 29th August in 1909. It is often celebrated as the first international public flying event, but in reality, the Frankfurt event, Internationale Luftschiffahrt Ausstellung, began a month before the Grand Semaine show and continued on until October.
The event may not have quite been the first air show put on but this aviation poster by Ernest Montaut knocks spots off any other air display posters for 1909. It features a selection of balloons, dirigibles, monoplanes, and bi-planes flying from the Reims Cathedral towards an elegantly dressed woman in the foreground that is waving at the passing aircraft.
Doncaster Aviation Races Poster – Great Northern Railway Poster
If you’ve any interest in the pioneering aviation history of Britain you’ll love this reproduction Doncaster Aviation Races Poster print. It may also surprise a lot of people to discover that the first air show ever held in England’s green and pleasant land took place in… Doncaster of all places!
The wonderfully simple but effective imagery is evocative of the era. It features two early flying machines racing in the sky. The Blériot XI monoplane is in the lead being chased by an aircraft that looks very similar to Orville Wright’s famous Wright Flyer. The Blériot XI was the flagship of French aviation having been the first to cross the English Channel in 1909.
Semaine d’aviation de Lyon – Charles Tichon – 1910
The vintage Semaine d’Aviation poster is from the early days of heavier-than-air aviation created by Charles Tichon. The show held at Lyon between the 7th and 15th of May 1910, was held less than twelve months after Bleriot became the first pilot to fly across the English Channel. The public could not get enough of this new phenomenon and turned up to air displays n their hundreds of thousands. This is a striking early aviation poster.
Meeting d’Aviation Nice Poster– Brosse 1910
As organisers of the 1910 Nice Air Show, it became the responsibility of Charles-Léonce Brossé to produce a Meeting d’Aviation Nice Poster to advertise the event. Luckily, Brossé was up to the task. Here he gives us a stunning ariel view of an early pilot flying a Blierot-style aeroplane. The pioneering pilot is scattering a bouquet of roses from the plane onto an incredible vista of Nice and the Gold Coast below.
Come and See the Flying at Hendon poster – Underground – Cyrus Cuneo – 1913
This is another stunning early aviation poster. This time it is created by the artist Cyrus Cincinatto Cuneo. The poster is titled Flying at Hendon and was produced jointly by the London Transport companies Underground and Motor Bus. The poster advertises Saturday afternoon aeroplane races with an artist’s impression, as seen from another flying machine over 1000 feet high, of a monoplane passenger flight at the London Aerodrome at Hendon. The airplane races took place on May 17th, 24th, and 31st of May 1913. A second aerial derby is also being advertised to take place on Saturday, June 7th 1913.
Handley Page Poster | Handley Page Transport Ltd | 1921 | Vintage Aviation Poster
Founded in 1909 Handley Page Limited was one of Britain’s first aviation manufacturers. It is most famous for having produced the earliest British-designed bomber and being one of the UK’s two large manufacturers of military aircraft during WWI. This vintage Handley Page poster features the Handley Page Type W.8. It was the aircraft manufacturer’s first purpose-built civil airliner and was adapted from the wartime Handley Page Type O/400 bomber.y. It was the fastest and most comfortable way to travel to Europe. However, as the Handley Page Poster alludes to, the introduction of passenger air flights was going to change all that. In 1924, Handley Page Transport merged with other companies to form Imperial Airways. This is an early aviation poster from around 1921 by an unknown artist.
Imperial Airways poster Croydon Airport – McCready – 1929
This is a stunning reproduction of a vintage Imperial Airways poster. It was created in 1929 by the artist Harold McCready. McCready has chosen to feature one of the recently introduced Armstrong Whitworth Argosy aircraft on the runway of Croydon Airport. The lettering on the top wing of the aircraft reads G-EBOZ, which denotes the aircraft was named ‘The City of Wellington’ and was later renamed ‘City of Arundel’. Original copies of this poster sell for in excess of £2000.
Japan Air Transport Co Ltd Poster – Seiichi – c1930
Japan Air Transport Co Ltd Poster – Seiichi – c1930
A poster advertising flights offered by Japan Air Lines Co Ltd. The destinations listed on the poster are Tokio, Osaka, Fukuoka, Urusan Keijo, Heijo and Dairen. The image is a westernised poster featuring a woman in the foreground, looking up and waving at a plane flying overhead. The pilot and a couple of passengers, one wearing a red kimono are ready to board the Fokker Tri-Motor plane.
How much is an original Constable India by Imperial Airways poster worth?
The India by Imperial Airways poster appeals to a variety of poster collectors. Firstly it is one of the best art deco style India travel posters of the 1930s. With its great illustration of the iconic American Handley-Paige aircraft original prints also appeal to aeroplane enthusiasts and collectors of aviation posters. especially those interested in the United States aviation history.
Finally, the poster depicts one of the most important religious city’s in the world for the Hindu community. The city of Varanasi, is regarded as the spiritual capital of India. It is a mecca for Hindu pilgrims who bathe in the Ganges River’s sacred waters and perform funeral rites. Along the city’s winding streets and riverbanks are some 2,000 temples.
It’s appeal to a variety of different collectors in any ggenre helps push the value of posters up. Original copies of this India by Imperial Airways poster currently (2021) command prices in excess of $3,500.
There’s no argument from us, if you can find an original copy and can afford to buy it, you’re on to a winner. There’s nothing like owning an original vintage poster and they often make a great investment. Chances are in just a few years you’ll be able to sell it for more than you paid for it. Unfortunately, for most of us, an investment, even at the entry-level prices of the collectible poster isn’t even close to being a possibility. This is where our stunning high-quality reproductions come into their own. They cost a fraction of an original and look absolutely fantastic when they’re framed and hung on your living room wall.
