G-AFGN Lockheed
14F-62
(c/n 1467)
Here's
Neville Chamberlain delivering his "Peace in our Time" speech at
Croydon on 29 September
1938, having just returned from his
meeting with Hitler in Munich aboard G-AFGN. These Lockheed
14s, (with G-AFGO - c/n 1468 - in the
background) were two of six operated by British Airways Ltd
on their longer
stage European flights (Berlin, Warsaw, Zurich, etc).
This photograph came from
"Picture Post" magazine, an early
UK photojournalism weekly publication which demised in 1957.
G-AFGN was written off in a crash on 11 August 1939 near
Saint Sauveur, Luxeuil, France (just
before the war that Chamberlain's "piece of
paper" was supposed to allay). The aircraft was on lease
to Imperial Airways at the time
and suffered an engine fire en route from Switzerland to London.
The
aircraft was completely destroyed in the
resultant crash landing although fortunately there was no loss
of life.