best way to solve the problem of air supremacy between ourselves and Germany is to prohibit altogether the manufacture or control of aero- planes by the Germans, as it is obvious that peace aeroplanes could be converted to war machines in a night… Throughout Scandinavia I found strong German organisations backed by the best banks. As a result they can quote prices which make ours look ridiculous. So the Germans have flooded that market; I have yet to meet a British banker, with the exception of Mr Copley, who has had the courage to advance a penny for aviation purposes.’ He was appalled to find ‘that certain aviation concerns in this country are openly discussing co-operation with the Germans’. Henderson continued his activities in Sweden until early 1921 but then returned home.


Napier He remained unemployed as a pilot for 27 months. During this time he bought, from Selwyn Francis Edge, an old Napier that had been used as a World War One German staff car. Edge had, in 1907, created a 24-hour speed record on the then just built Brooklands Track and he was challenged by The Motor magazine to beat his old record. For this he acquired the Napier but when its engine was damaged he sold it to Henderson. Henderson replaced the broken engine with a Rolls-Royce Falcon aero engine. He then sold it on to a Mr H W Whyte of West Kilbride who agreed to buy it provided Henderson drove the car in person up to Scotland. This he did in one day and used about 40 gallons of petrol. Henderson returned to flying in March 1922 as an occasional freelance pilot working for Surrey Flying Services. This was a favoured sub- contractor for Instone Air Lines, and he took part in their air mail experiment. This started at Plymouth when a steam pinnacle pulled up alongside an incoming American liner as it entered the Channel, then a dummy packet of mails was transferred from the liner to the pinna- cle, which then returned to Plymouth. There the dummy packet was swapped for real letters; these were loaded on to Henderson’s aeroplane, which he then flew to Croydon arriving shortly after 7.00am. The letters were then franked at the aerodrome post office. Soon after 9.00am they were handed to the pilots of aeroplanes leaving for Brussels, Cologne and Paris, where they were met by couriers who delivered the letters by hand. The experiment proved that as much as two or three days could be saved for letters going to


37


Cologne.


In 1923 Germany was suffering from hyper-in- flation and Instone Air Lines had a contract with the German government to fly currency between the two countries. Such was the demand for these flights that during August they hired a DH9 from Surrey Flying Services and the job was given to Henderson. It was not unusual for him to make the return trip between London and Cologne in a single day and it was rumoured that he had once made a return trip to Brussels as well as a return trip to Cologne in the same day. In 1924 Imperial Airways was about to be formed, which would take over all our current airlines. Their pilots knew that some of them were about to become unemployed, but Imperial would not say who or under what terms they might be employed. The pilots thought Imperial was waiting for them to become unemployed; then they would be offered contracts on a ‘take it or leave it’ basis. They decided not to wait but to confront the situation by forming a union called the Federation of Airline Pilots. This was open to airline pilots, taxi pilots and freelance pilots, and so Henderson joined and became its president. Once in place he had to address the Imperial Airways issue. The pilots thought Imperial’s policy was the work of George Woods Humphreys, Imperial’s General Manager to be. He had served with Handley Page Transport and Daimler Airways, and whilst at Handley Page Transport he had gained a reputation for pressur- ing pilots into taking inappropriate actions and then blaming them when things went wrong. They felt this was because he was not a pilot and therefore did not understand their work. Sir Eric Geddes, Imperial’s Chairman, thought this was wrong and claimed Woods Humphreys was a pilot, but Henderson proved that this was not so. When Imperial told them how their pay was to be calculated, it seemed to confirm their fears. Their pay was to be based on a £100 per year retainer plus a flying payment of 2d per mile. To the pilots, this was unacceptable as wind speed and aeroplane performance would affect the outcome and they wanted payment based on the time spent in the air. On 6th March the Federation sharpened the attack on Woods Humphreys by sending Geddes a letter listing the many problems that they felt he had caused. To Woods Humphreys this was too much and he sued Henderson. Things were deadlocked so on the airline’s founding day, 1st April, it could not


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