Maia, Imperial airways, Captain Don Bennett, Foynes, WW2

Short-Mayo Composite flying boats Mercury and Maia were built in an attempt by Imperial airways to serve the transatlantic airmail route more efficiently. The idea was to launch the heavily loaded mail plane Mercury from the back of the lightly loaded Maia after the combination had climb to cruising level. The Maia was an adapted Short S.30 Empire flying boat. Flying trials began in early 1938 with the first separation on 6 February and the first long-distance flight was made from Foynes in Ireland on 20 July. Captain Don Bennett (who became a famous W.W.2 Pathfinder pilot) then flew Mercury on to Montreal, a distance of 2930 miles in 20 hours 20 minutes. He later flew south to New York where Mercury was reunited with Maia. WW2 put paid to any further development of this interesting conception.February 1938 P004825