Q25 August 18, 2006   member 230 W.S. Bruncker. - flight This cover is postmarked with Continental-Savoy Type HC5 on 25 XII 26. It is also backstamped the same day in Cairo. Can someone enlighten me about the flight from London to Cairo on Dec. 24, 1926? The cover is signed "W.S. Bruncker." To date I have not been able to find anything about Bruncker and the flight

R1 September 27, 2006   member 591 "W.S. Bruncker" is Sir Sefton Brancker (spelt with an a) who was Director of Civil Aviation. In late 1924 and early 1925 he had accompanied Sir Alan Cobham on a survey flight to India. At the end of 1926 Imperial Airways was making preparations for the taking over of the RAF Cairo-Baghdad service and extending it to Basra. The airline had just taken delivery of De Havilland DH66 Hercules aircraft to operate this service. The first aircraft to be delivered to the Middle East was G-EBMY which left Croydon on 18 December 1926, piloted by Captain CF Wolley Dod, Chief Pilot Eastern Routes. He was accompanied by a co-pilot, an engineer, a wireless operator and four passengers, including Sir Sefton Brancker. They arrived in Cairo on 24 December. The cover illustrated in the September QC would have been flown as unofficial mail on this delivery flight and posted the day after arrival at Cairo. It is the first example of such a cover that I had seen. The flight of G-EBMY continued to Baghdad on 27 December and the aircraft was named 'City of Baghdad' by King Feisal of Iraq. At Baghdad on 3 January 1927, Sir Sefton Brancker joined Sir Samuel Hoare, Secretary of State for Air and Lady Hoare aboard the DH66 Hercules G-EBMX on the Imperial Airways survey flight to India. They arrived at Delhi on 8 January and the aircraft was named 'City of Delhi' by the Viceroy of India.