An Eagle Falls

The rise and fall of a great British independent airline.

---

In 1948, a recently demobbed anonymous Australian wartime pilot started an airline with GBP100, valued at GBP3,700 today. That Australian pilot, Harold Bamberg, called his airline, Eagle Aviation, and while his airlines would change their names, he would challenge the UK and international airline market over the next 20 years with industry and world firsts. But, in the end, the Harold Wilson government would make decisions that could not be overcome by Bamberg's business acumen. Ultimately the all-important bottom line gave way, and the administrators would walk in as the management walked out with an overnight liquidation.