Edition: 1st Edition
Published By: Issued by the Committee of Lloyd’s / Lloyd's Aviation Record, London
A rare and exceptionally important pair of confidential Lloyd’s registers documenting pilots and aircraft during the formative years of British civil aviation, compiled immediately after the First World War for insurance and underwriting purposes. Produced at the precise moment of transition from wartime production to peacetime innovation, these volumes record the survival, redeployment, and commercialisation of airframes and personnel following the 1920 collapse of Airco and the founding of the de Havilland Aircraft Company by Geoffrey de Havilland at Stag Lane. The registers provide a contemporaneous, primary-source record of the people, machines, and engines that shaped early commercial flight. References to de Havilland designs are extensive, particularly the DH.9 and DH.9A, tracing their demobilisation from military bombers into civil aircraft used for early mail and passenger services. Engine data includes detailed entries for the Siddeley Puma and the Napier Lion, illustrating the evolving mechanical standards of the period.
Volume I: Pilots No 4
A comprehensive professional record of early aviators, including notable figures such as Frank Croosley Broome, D.F.C., Lawrence Lauder Carter, and Harry Bligh. Entries detail licence classes (A and B), accumulated flying hours, aircraft types flown (frequently including the Avro 504K), and instructional experience. Extensive contemporary manuscript annotations in red and black ink record renewals, career progress, and operational status, forming a living chronicle of each pilot’s career.
Volume II: Aircraft No 6.
A census-style registry of operational aircraft in the early 1920s, recording ownership, airworthiness certification, structural modifications, and inspection history. Notable ownership entries include aircraft belonging to Marconi’s Wireless Telegraph Company (used for early air-to-ground radio experiments), as well as early commercial fleets operated by Vickers Ltd. and A.V. Roe & Co. Each card functions as a condensed logbook and insurance dossier.
Both volumes in very good vintage condition. Light shelf wear and minor rubbing to extremities. Bindings intact and functional. Cards lightly age-toned but crisp, with all typewritten and manuscript entries clear and legible. Issued exclusively as “Confidential Information for the Use of Subscribers,” these registers were never intended for public circulation. They constitute the internal intelligence of Lloyd’s of London at the moment when British aviation shifted from wartime necessity to commercial possibility. A rare survival and an essential reference for aviation historians, collectors, and institutions.
Book Condition: Very Good
Binding: Harback
Price £4500.00
