Aquila to Madeira: The Story of Flying Boats to Funchal

‘The air age comes to Madeira’ said the press when, in 1949, the Aquila Airways flying boat Hampshire arrived at Funchal with passengers from the UK. Here in words and pictures is the story of the ten years during which the company flew tens of thousands of passengers from Southampton to the warmer climes of Madeira, offering air travellers a degree of comfort that compared favourably with the land aircraft then in operation with other airlines. Much of the material is derived from the author’s previous book for Silver Link, Flying Boats of the Solent , but this smaller, more keenly priced volume concentrates solely on the operations of Aquila Airways, and additional photographs and items of ephemera are included. The Aquila flying boat era came to an end when the company’s Southampton made the final flight, to Lisbon, on 5 December 1958, but by then the flying boats had earned themselves a rightful place in the marine aviation heritage of Southampton and Madeira.