Egypt And Back With Imperial Airways

A trip to Cairo by Imperial Airways.

Film record of a journey to Egypt and a four day holiday in Cairo. The film begins at Croydon Airport, recording the activities of the ground crew and the arrival and departure of two Imperial Airways planes, the Heracles and the Hengist. The film records a stopover in Crete on the journey to Cairo where the plane is moored close to a yacht. The final section of the film records street scenes in Cairo and an excursion to the Great Pyramid and Sphinx, returning to the city by Marg and Old Heliopolis. Shots at Croydon airport include: pilots looking a weather/visibility chart; mail and passengers arriving at Coydon airport; a Handley Page 42 (Heracles) landing; baggage being unloaded by uniformed handlers (K.L.M. is the baggage handler); Heracles being towed; ground crew inspecting the aircraft following landing; coaches arriving with passengers for continental flights; passengers embarking on a Handley Page 42 Imperial Airways aircraft (Hengist - a Royal Mail insignia on the outside of the plane); aircraft taking-off; brief shot of a woman in the cabin looking out of the window. Shots on Crete include: a flying boat (Scipio) being refuelled; passengers and crew on the company's yacht. Shots in Egypt include: scenes on the streets in Cairo, including a visit to the city's eastern quarter; the pyramids; observations of market day in Marg and encounters with the local population, including sightings of a leper and women collecting water from a river, on the return journey from Old Heliopolis to Cairo.

Featured Buildings

Croydon Airport Avenue des Pyramides The Great Pyramid The Sphinx

Keywords

Egypt in the 1930s; Tourism in the 1930s; KLM; Imperial Airways; Empire air routes; Air mail services; Air travel; Aircraft; Handley Page 42; Civil aviation; Pyramids; Sphinx

Intertitles

Nearly 10,000,000 letters are carried annually, over air routes totalling 14,000 miles. 60,000 people have travelled by air within the last twelve months. Here we can see mail and passengers arriving at Croydon. The customary inspection which is given to every machine upon landing. Soon after sun_rise the coaches begin to arrive with passengers for the continent [“]Empire Passengers this way, please” “Contact” Three days later Moored off the sombre hills of Crete Captain and passengers board the Company’s yacht while “Scipio” refuels Above the clouds The air-mail reaches Cairo The Goal Achieved: Four adventurous days before returning to Croydon Off to see the Eastern Quarter Taking a cab to the outskirts of the City, we come to primitive dwellings In six minutes to the summit of the Great Pyramid He makes the descent in two – and collects the “baksheesh” Marg, a typical native village, which is famous for its groves of date-palms We are lucky to arrive on Market Day Coming now to Old Heliopolis, we make our way back to the City Yesterday and To-day A Leper Women come for water to the river evening .. and overhead the drone of aircraft homebound with the African Mail

Other Places

Croydon; Crete; Marg, Egypt; Old Heliopolis, Egypt