Thursday 1st April 2004 marked the 80th anniversary of the formation of Imperial Airways, and for this reason the opportunity was taken to officially launch the project to build an HP42 airliner. Much effort went into running 'teasers' on the website, stand and the club magazines for the months preceding the launch. After sending off our version of a first day cover, with a stop press informing many people and organisations of the project and inviting them to attend the first face-to-face project display, we were intrigued to see how many people thought this was just an April Fool! We need not have worried, as on the following Sunday there was a good turn out at the launch at Croydon Airport. Even though several sporting events were going on, and another icon - Concorde - was on the move bereft of wings on a barge just up the road, we were pleased to see the high level of interest and support given by all who did attend. As always these events bring those extra little pieces of information which helps to fill in another piece of the jigsaw, and this day was no different. We also took this opportunity to the celebrate Imperial Airways' anniversary, as this had been neglected elsewhere, and met several people with interesting memories of the airline.

The strange thing was realising that it was possible to actually tell people what we have been doing for a change, rather than biting our tongues. With a positive response from everyone leading up to, and during the event, we look forward to the many venues that will be attended during the forthcoming airshow season. Our many thanks must go to the Croydon Airport Society for allowing us to display at the airport on one of their monthly open days (the first Sunday of the month throughout the year, giving the public access to the control tower and booking hall) and of course for access to their archives.

Since before operating the world's current largest bi-plane, the Vickers Vimy, in 1996, we have been seriously working on the 'Imperial 42' project, until in 2000 we had to go full-time on it due to the amount of travelling undertaken. As with all our previous projects we do not advertise what is going on until we have everything in place. Experience tells us that if you do, you end up making promises which generally have to be broken. Also in 2000 it was decided that by the time we had everything in place the 80th anniversary of the formation of Imperial Airways should be coming up, and so the launch date was then set.

The information for the project has been collected over many years. The different sources are too numerous to mention, but here are some of them. Firstly the Imperial Airways website (write-up along with our Handley Page site in the same issue of 'Aeroplane' as the HP42 database, January 2002) has over 250 pages and has gained us invaluable information for the project from all over the world, hence much of the travelling done. The website was set up to run alongside the Imperial Airways archive. The club, 'Club Imperial', was set up last year due to the large amount of people contacting us through the website wanting a club. Our exhibition stand, which we revamped to coincide with the club launch last year, includes a history of Imperial Airways and has also helped people exchange information and find old friends and colleagues, which has been one of the most gratifying parts of the project and makes all the effort worth while. The stand attended 8 airshows last year after its revamp in September, and after having already been to several shows this year, we have another 43 dates booked for the forthcoming season. The stand will have further additions this season, as well as something very interesting planned for next year as we get ever closer to the aircraft's first flight.

Television producers have come to us in the last few years for detailed information on the airline, and this has led to further contacts being made in all countries the programmes have been aired in. Finally our research for the reference book - 'British Commercial Aircraft 1920-1940', unlocked many archives and collections of vital information. These sources alone have gained us documents that were thought not to have survived to this day.

In accordance with the wishes of sponsors we cannot divulge many 'specifics' at the moment. We can say, however, that the 9 years we have been working on the project have been put to good use. The necessary information for the project has been obtained, although no-one can say they have everything that they would like. We are sure that there are still items out there which would be of great use to the project, no matter how small. You can also never have enough sponsorship for a project of this size - it's not the cheapest aircraft (or I should say airliner!) to operate. What we can tell you is that unlike all previous attempts made to build this aircraft by others, this aircraft is going to be as close to the original as possible in every way including using Jupiter engines. The £11 million needed has already been obtained for the aircraft and the infrastructure (without which the aircraft would not be able to operate), and construction of the whole project commenced last year. In fact bookings for the aircraft have already been taken! Finally, we are pleased to say that the aircraft will be built in this country. As soon as we can give further details of the build and other aspects of the project, we will do so through our website, club, stand, and the aviation press.

Since our official launch, with the support of the public, the industry and the sponsors, we are all very happy to be able to share this with everyone after 9 years of hard work and effort.