Details of Air Union's F-GEAB are given on Photo 651334. Also depicted is Imperial Airways' Vickers Type 170 Vanguard G-EBCP c/n.1, the only one of its type. Registered 19 April 1922, first flew 18 July 1923 as Type 62 for the Air Ministry, later Type 103 before being re-engined as Type 170, to Imperial Airways 1925. Withdrawn from airline service 1928 for a new tail unit to eliminate control problems. On 16 May 1929 while on a test-flight from Brooklands, it crashed and burned at Shepperton, killing the two occupants. The tail unit had failed, attributed to excessive rudder force.

Registered June 1921. Later converted to F.63bis standard. Fate not known.

Previously operated by G.E.A. It crashed while attempting to land at Lympne -8 Feb.1925 after an engine failed over the English Channel while operating a cargo flight from Paris to Croydon. Later repaired and returned to service. On 24 Nov.1927 it was badly damaged in a forced landing at Yaldham Manor, Wrotham, Kent but was again repaired and returned to service. On 31 July 1929 it made a forced landing near Smarden, Kent while flying gold bullion from Croydon to Paris. It may have been yet again repaired and returned to service, as the registration was not cancelled until -1 June 1932.

Registered 20 August 1926. Later modified to a Model LéO 213 and operated by Air France, formed by the merger of Air Union with other French airlines -7 Oct.1933. Shortly after departing Le Bourget on a mail flight to Croydon on 16 Nov.1933 the port engine caught fire. The two crew members bailed out and the abandoned aircraft stalled and crashed into an electricity pole and a factory roof before bursting into flames in a tributary of the Avelon River, near Beauvais. Both pilots were uninjured but the aircraft and its cargo of over a ton of mail were all destroyed.

Registered 5th October 1927, so still relatively new when photographed. This was the first of two built for Air Union for their Paris-London service. Fate not known.

Registered August1922. Previously operated by Messageries Aériennes. On 11 March 1928, after broadcasting a Mayday it crashed in the English Channel nine miles from Folkestone, killing both crew members. It had been operating a scheduled flight from Paris to Croydon but had landed at Saint-Inglevert airfield to await an improvement in the weather before continuing, the passengers then opting to continue their journey by boat. Cancelled March 1928.

The Farman F.60 Goliath was a French airliner and bomber produced by the Farman Aviation Works from 1919. It was instrumental in the creation of early airlines and commercial routes in Europe after WWI. This Goliath crashed at Wadhurst, East Sussex when flying between Paris and Croydon, with three passengers killed and two injured. The museum website suggests the aircraft was repaired and returned to service to fly around the Alps. This is supported by the fact that its registration was not cancelled until June 1932. Air Union was one of the four airlines that merged to become Air France,

Two Farman Goliaths of Air Union, F-ADDT Languedoc and F-AECU Normandie, dwarf two smaller airliners at Croydon. Those are Blériot-SPAD S.33 F-ADBI, also of Air Union, and Fokker F.III H-NABG of KLM.

'A regular night air mail service between Paris and London has just been inaugurated by Air Union, a heavily-laden aeroplane reaching Croydon at four o'clock this morning... The mails were immediately rushed to the GPO by motor car for early delivery in London.' The Goliath crashed near Paddock Wood railway station on a daytime cargo flight on 19 May 1929.

The FBA company was continued as Hydravions Louis Schreck FBA after WWI, still producing small flying boats. Their first design with a tractor propeller, the FBA 19 was built in small numbers, including one three-seat FBA 19 HMT.3 amphibian (Hydravion Mixte de Transport) which was delivered to Air Union. It is seen here on the Thames at Hammersmith. The pilot, wearing a life jacket, is Maurice Noguès. Photo from: Air Union

The original caption mentions that aerial travel between London and Paris got a boost from a general strike in England at this time. This Goliath served from 1922 until 1928, originally with the Messageries Aériennes company. On the right is a Danish Farman Jabiru, T-DOXB.