Imperial Airways was founded in the mid 20s and would go on to fly from its Croydon, London base to cities across the world including Brisbane, Bermuda, New York and Hong Kong.
Trailblazing pilots, flight crews and passengers risked life and limb to see the world aboard Britain's first intercontinental commercial airline.
In the age of modern air travel, passengers onboard even the most budget Ryanair flight can expect a sturdy seat, an arm rest, the chance to buy a cup of tea and microwave dinner, and access to a toilet.
For those early adopters of aircraft, the conditions were a little different.
On 31 March, 1924 Imperial Airways - a company which would merge many years later to form British Airways - was launched thanks to a £1million investment from the government which brought together its three smaller predecessors.
An earlier Imperial Airways plane converted in 1927 to make Cross Channel journeys ( Image: SSPL via Getty Images)
Now the most far flung and dangerous corners of the British Empire were connected by air, slashing journey times in the process.
Although the French and German governments had been ploughing money into commercial aviation for some years, the infrastructure beyond Europe was essentially non-existence, prompting Imperial to set about designing routes.
A great survey of some of the most hostile, waterless and dangerous areas of the Empire was launched in 1925, allowing the airline to build outposts in parts of Africa and Asia near impossible to visit until that point.
Builders were sent out to construct weather services, radio stations, landing grounds and even a giant furrow ploughed in the desert to help pilots navigate.
The inside of an Imperial Airways craft in 1925 ( Image: Alamy Stock Photo)
On March 30, 1929 - five years after the company was formed - its first official flight was flown from Britain to India, according to Centennial of Flight.
It was a momentous occasion, given the significance of the country in the Empire and how many people journeyed between the nations at that time.
Eight passengers hopped onboard a de Havilland Hercules trimotor biplane that went through France, Italy, Greece, Egypt, Iraq and and India.
While slow by modern standards, the route cut the travel time down from three weeks via sea to just one week by air.
By the late 1930s, flight times had been progressively reduced and India could typically be reached in two and a half days on Imperial Airways’ flying boat-crafts.