A man who dreams of seaplanes and square-rigged sailing ships, but is most often found piloting a desk.
About Taylor Empire Airways
About Chris Taylor
My Interests
A B O U T T A Y L O R E M P I R E A I R W A Y S
Taylor Empire Airways is the personal blog of Chris Taylor, and began operations as Taylor & Company, a mobile phone blog (or moblog) hosted by TextAmerica in the winter of 2004. Over time, as the content evolved toward longer entries and fewer camera phone pictures, it made sense to migrate to a newer platform. From September 2006 through June 2009 the site was hosted at TypePad, and focused primarily on current affairs and defence issues in particular.
Now the site is focused more closely on aviation, both civil and military. Chris is still quite interested in the welfare of his brothers and sisters in uniform, but the argy-bargy of domestic politics gets less compelling and rewarding the older he gets.
Our imagery is an homage to Britain’s Imperial Airways (later BOAC, now British Airways) and its regional partners, Qantas Empire Airways in Australia and Tasman Empire Airways in New Zealand. The author has tried to craft his own vision of what a notional Canadian partner airline might have looked like.
In Golden Age of Aviation (1919-1939), air mail and the first long-distance airline routes were being pioneered. Airliner service was less technically advanced (and certainly far less safe) but more more attention was paid to passenger comfort. As the aircraft were not pressurised, they were limited to much lower altitudes. Pilots would make an effort to pass nearby landmarks for the entertainment of the passengers. Meals were prepared aboard by the steward. The cabins were spacious and well-appointed, like a Pullman car. At night the aircraft would put down at a designated night stop, where passengers and crew alike would dine and rest at a hotel. Interestingly, both passengers and crew tended to regard these flights as something of an adventure. It was a far cry from the mundane, no-frills approach of today’s air travel.
We hope to remind you of aviation’s former magic and adventure here.
A B O U T C H R I S T A Y L O R
The author lives and works in the 21st century, though occasionally it feels as if he is just visiting, and will awaken to find himself on the quarterdeck of a late 18th century frigate, or the flight deck of a Short S.23 Empire flying boat. Some day he will find a way to combine his varied and ever-changing interests (along with writing and technology) into a single career; but for now blogging will suffice.
Chris at Toronto Island Airport (CYTZ), June 1983.
Chris’ love of aeronautics was instilled by his father, who had learned to fly as a young man and passed on that love to his son. Young Chris’ first-ever flight was aboard a Saunders ST-27 operated by Air Atonabee. His father had gotten wind that the shuttle test vehicle Enterprise and its 747 carrier would be overnighting at the former CFB Uplands in Ottawa, on its way back from air shows in Europe. Dad arranged for his son to fly up to Ottawa alone, and be met at the airport by the 17-year-old daughter of their local Member of Parliament; who would then chaperone the ten-year-old Chris around the base, the House of Commons and other tourist-friendly spots in the city. It was a rather exceptional introduction to air travel, and your author has been hooked on the exhilaration and romance of flying (both as a pilot and passenger) ever since.
At the controls of C-GOZD, a Cessna C172P. May 1999.
Now much older, the Chris doesn’t get a chance to fly very often, but does enjoy going aloft every chance he gets. Like many others who have touched the sky, he well understands this sentiment from the well-known French writer and aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry:
“I fly because it releases my mind from the tyranny of petty things…”
Such is the lifelong spell cast by aviation.
Civil and military aviation, especially its “Golden Age” from 1919-1939; defence and foreign policy; Greek and Roman classical history; European history, especially the Age of Discovery, Renaissance, Reformation and Enlightenment; local history in Toronto and Ontario; the Christian faith; classical, orchestral, choral and operatic music (especially chamber music and Baroque ensembles); the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, classic rock, ’80s retro; and a multitude of books, such as the aviation novels of Ernest K. Gann, C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity, Adam Smith’s The Theory of Moral Sentiments and An Inquiry into the Nature And Causes of the Wealth of Nations, C.S. Forester’s “Hornblower” novels, Patrick O’Brian’s “Aubrey–Maturin” novels, George MacDonald Fraser’s “Flashman” novels, and Alexander Frater’s thoroughly entertaining travelogues, notably Beyond the Blue Horizon: On the Track of Imperial Airways.
Chris flies a desk for a living but is an aeronautics enthusiast who delights in the Golden Age of Aviation. He admires all the pioneering men and women who travelled the world equipped with only a map, compass, sextant, and the conviction that there was no place they could not reach.
