Imperial Airways Map of Air Routes 1933: London - Paris / Paris - Basle / Basle - Zurich / London - Brussels / Brussels - Cologne

Long sheet 182x21cm, printed on both sides, concertina folding down into printed panels 12x21cm with Imperial Airways' Speedbird logo to the front and advert for Armstrong Siddeley to the back. Printed and published by RaynOil for Imperial. Sheet near fine with some spotting, panels good with dusting and wear at the edges. One side features the sectional maps in colour, 1cm to 10km (showing air routes, aerodromes, prohibited areas, frontiers, roads, rail, rivers, canals), together with descriptive text to the bottom for various points of interest, and Edward Bawden's b/w illustrations along the the top (St Pauls, Le Touquet, Beauvais etc). The other features the story of "The Conquest of the Air" from Bleriot in 1909 up to the Schneider Trophy in 1931, with Bawden's b/w illustrations running along the top and bottom. The final panel shows Bawden himself in the lower corner, looking up at the sky from a recumbent position, signing his name dated 1932.