G-AAXE passing leisurely over the Suez Canal on the sector between Alexandra and Gaza. It was destroyed in a hangar fire at Karachi on May 31, 1937. Photo from: D.W.F Bonham-Carter DFC (via Jim Cownie)

Scan taken from undated slide.

Registered to Imperial Airways 23 April 1930. First flew 8 Dec.1931. Built originally as an HP.42W (to which model the designation HP.45 was applied in later years but not during their flying lives nor was it reflected in the c/n.) and converted to an HP.42E in 1935. It was destroyed by fire in the airship shed at Drigh Road airfield, Karachi 31 May 1937. Cancelled July 1937.

'First regular airmail service to Australia'. Imperial Airways schedules were always complicated - the HP.45 flew to Karachi and an AW.15 Atalanta continued to Darwin. As there was too much demand for the inaugural flight, the public were fooled: Hengist actually carried mail for India while letters for Australia had been dispatched via the old route to Karachi which involved a train between Paris and Brindisi. Even when transported entirely by air, the mail still took almost two weeks from London to Sydney.