Aviation pictures - the early years on sand and water

Aviation pictures - the early years

The Sphere magazine announcing the start of a new flying boat service in July 1926. The Supermarine Swan was not quite as new as the article suggested, having been built, not to operate commercial flights to the Channel Islands, but for the Air Ministry, which loaned it to Imperial Airways. It's commercial role was not long-lived because the aircraft was scrapped in 1917. Although this was a much-photographed aircraft, we are not aware of any pictures surviving of it in Jersey. The Supermarine Seagull, G-EBGR, in the gallery below, was of similar vintage. It was one of three identical aircraft which operated the world's first commercial flying boat service, mainly between Southampton and Guernsey, but sometimes calling at Jersey. This service started in September 1923

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  The R36 Airship flies over St Helier on 11 June 1921
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  A flying boat manoeuvres into St Helier Harbour
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  A seaplane arrives from Southampton
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  An Imperial Airways flying boat leaves St Helier Harbour prior to take-off
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  Supermarine Seagull in St Helier Harbour. This aircraft started operating the world's first scheduled commercial flying boat service in 1923 and continued flying until 1929 - a good life in these early days of flying boats
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  From a postcard, Sea Eagle, a flying boat pictured in Jersey
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  Seaplane Calcutta
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  Supermarine Seagull in St Helier Harbour in 1933
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  Cloud of Iona manoeuvres in St Helier Harbour
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  Sea Gull, a flying boat visitor in 1929
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  The beach at West Park would be used for commercial flying but there were some early joyrides from St Brelade's Bay by this aircraft, the Silver Bat
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  Elsie Deroche, an aviation pioneer in Jersey in 1917
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  The only known photograph of an aircraft landed at Grouville
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  DH 60 Moth in 1933
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  Flt Lt Mossop, the first Jerseyman to fly to Jersey
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  Old Victorian Captain Biard who piloted the first air passenger service to the Channel Islands
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  The Saro Cloud on the beach in 1930
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  A DH83 Fox Moth on the beach at L'Etacq in the 1930s
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  Fox Moth at L'Etacq

This de Havilland 83 Fox Moth was pictured on the beach at First Tower in 1933. We know the year because the aircraft was first registered to the Hon Brian Lewis, a prominent racing driver between the wars, in January of that year. It was then operated by Portsmouth Southsea and Isle of Wight Aviation, before being sold to Australia in September 1933. The aircraft, based on the famous Tiger Moth, had an unusual configuration, with a forward cabin accommodating three or four passengers (depending which description is read) and the pilot sitting in a raised cockpit behind

As this poster shows, the airline, which operated out of Portsmouth Airport, offered flights to London or Jersey, both taking two hours. Their Jersey handling agent was W G Bellingham, of 1 Mulcaster Street, the first, or one of the island's first travel agents

Probably the largest aircraft to enter St Helier Harbour - a Short S23 Empire flying boat. Built for Imperial Airways in 1935, it was known as 'Cambria'. Designed for long-distance flying it was the first of its class to fly the length of Africa completing its journey in Durban. Cambria diverted to Jersey due to bad weather at Poole on 6 Jan 1940 and departed to Poole the next day. It was operating flight SW200 from Alexandria to Poole at the time. With a wingspan of 35 metres it would have comfortably passed through the 50-metre wide pierheads after landing in St Aubin's Bay

Another photograph of Cambria believed to have been taken in St Aubin's Bay

G-AEUF Corinthian diverted to Jersey on 5 Jan 40 due to the Poole weather, and went on to Poole on 6 Jan. It was operating flight KN131 which had originated at Kisumu in Kenya via Alexandria and Marseilles.

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  A private aircraft lands on the beach in 1931 and is manouvred to a Gloucester Street garage for refuelling
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  Refuelling in progress
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  An autogyro, an early aircraft to visit Jersey in 1933
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  The autogyro was demonstrated by Flt-Lt Barringer to a crowd estimated at 20,000
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  The 1933 air pageant at Les Quennevais, four years before the Airport opened
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  At the 1933 air pageant
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  Mrs Victor Bruce, right, the first woman to fly round the world, attended Jersey's air pageant in 1933
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  Cars parked at Les Quennevais for the 1933 air display - picture Evening Post
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  Mrs Bruce
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  The aircraft Mrs Bruce flew at the 1933 pageant
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  On the beach in 1927
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  A Jersey Airways aircraft at an unknown airport in 1933
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  Short S23 in St Helier Harbour
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  The R36 Airship flew over St Helier in 1921
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  Sea eagle
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  Seaplane in St Helier Harbour in 1929
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  Mail delivery by hot air balloon in 1870
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  A seaplane manoeuvres in St Helier Harbour
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  A DH83 Fox Moth in St Aubin's Bay. This aircraft was first registered to racing driver Brian Lewis in 1933, and was then operated by Portsmouth Southsea and Isle of Wight Aviation, before eventually being sold to Australia, which dates the photograph to between 1933 and 1935

A seaplane at Anne Port in the 1920s. This is a very rare photograph of a seaplane landing anywhere other than in St Aubin's Bay in Jersey's coastal waters. The aircraft may have landed in St Catherine's Bay and taxied to Anne Port as the first stretch of beach where it could disembark passengers. This is a six-seater Vickers Viking IV seaplane, registered G-EBED to Leslie Hamilton of the Royal Aero Club in 1926 and possibly destroyed in 1929. The picture was originally believed to have been taken in the 1930s, but it must have been in the late 'twenties

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  The seaplane in Jersey was a Vickers Viking, built in 1923 and operational for six years. It is not known why this four-seat seaplane, registered G-EBED, powered by a single Napier Lion engine, was in Jersey. These pictures show G-EBED in Spain
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• Cloud of Iona, the seaplane which came to a tragic end

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