'Imperial 42' was the nickname given to a project that we started work on in the 1980s. The idea was to build and operate a faithful replica of the famous Handley Page HP42 airliner. Many thought that anything close to this idea would be impossible, indeed many others have tried and failed during this time, but to us there is no such thins as 'impossible', just a higher degree of difficulty to achieve the desired outcome.

Everything to do with the 'Imperial 42' project has been a major task in itself, and the many varied aspects (plans, construction, operation, hangar, infrastructure, and so on) were slowly worked through and overcome whilst working in secret. The team is used to tackling these challenges, from operating Britain's only floatplane, to a replica of the World War One bomber - the Vickers Vimy. After gaining unique knowledge running the Vimy - the world's largest biplane - and overcoming the final hurdles of the project, we publicly launched 'Imperial 42' on the 80th Anniversary of the formation of Imperial Airways in 2004.

The project includes not only the aircraft build, but also the historical side of the HP42, and later an educational side to show people how aviation has developed. Due to project commitments and sponsors wishes we can only divulge a relatively small amount of information at the present, but as the project commences we will be able to share more.

Our main aim was to keep the aircraft as close to the original design as possible in every way, therefore we had to choose how it would be operated once built. If we decided the aircraft was going to carry passengers to pay for itself we would have two major problems. Firstly, the amount of physical changes required to satisfy today's regulations would make both the internal and external looks of the aircraft noticeably different from the original. Therefore the whole point in a faithful replica would disappear. Secondly, if passenger-carrying operations were used as the major source of income, the future of the aircraft would be dependent on every aspect of the supporting infrastructure working. This means that if any part of the infrastructure failed to work, e.g. weather, serviceability, political climate, (even demand!), it could adversely affect the ability to take passengers and therefore earn money to keep flying. To sum it up carrying passengers would mean the aircraft would not look or sound as close to the original as it could, and revenue to keep it flying into the future could not be guaranteed.

Therefore we decided not to carry passengers so the aircraft could be a true replica, but we would have to find a different way to earn revenue. The obvious that jumps to mind would be airshows, but in practice that would not go far to cover the running costs. Having had experience before, we knew the money needed would come from areas such as sponsorship, corporate events, documentaries, and film work. Having contacts through previous projects, and after a few years of discussions, we are now in the position to say that we have secured deals including all those previously mentioned, and more. This means that the aircraft's future is secure as we do not have to rely on uncertain funding.

After gaining vital knowledge and contacts operating the Vickers Vimy, there were certain areas of research which were relatively easy to conquer. However, one of the largest stumbling blocks was finding original plans to build from. Many leads regarding the whereabouts of plans were followed up, but most ended up as dead ends or leading to the Handley Page Association and the Croydon Airport Society who have been of great help. Even though we had a good selection of drawings, there was still a vast gap in what we needed. However, through our Imperial Airways website we were contacted by an ex-Imperial Airways employee in Canada, which led to boxes of old official documents and rolls of plans being brought back to England. From this point onwards, for what we did not have plans for, we had factory photographs of the structure, and together with documentation to back it up this enabled us to back engineer any missing drawings. Construction of the project started in 2003.