G-ABLI in varied company. Note the single porthole behind the pilot’s cabin - was this prior to the Karachi flight or afterwards? Recognisable among the aircraft in the photograph are Cierva C24 G-ABLM (withdrawn from use December 1934); Puss Moth; Dessoutter (either G-ABFO or G-ABRN); Hendy 302 G-AAVT; Junkers F.13ge G-ABDC (sold in Sweden December 1934) and Comper Swift G-ABPE. Can anyone name and date the occasion?

THE SPARTAN CRUISER as used on London - Isle of Wight Air Line Service.
Cruiser II G-ACDW, carrying Spartan Air Lines titles on the fin and Spartan’s short-lived logo.
Spartan Airlines' Spartan Cruiser II G-ACDW began operating from Cowes on the Isle of Wight to Heston in 1933.

Spartan Air Lines Cruiser II G-ACDX at Croydon for the start of the Railway Air Services three times a day service from London to the Isle of Wight, May 1, 1934. The routing linked to the rail service from Croydon to Victoria Station in central London.

The Cruiser I G-ABTY showing its unusual cockpit!cabin glazing.

Captain W P Crawford Greene, the MP for Worcester, chartered Spartan Air Lines Cruiser II G-ACDW for a flight from Heston to Australia and back in October 1933. The aircraft, carrying the name Faithful City, is shown at Heston, loading up.

Mk III G-ADEL in flight over the Isle of Wight.

Cruiser II G-ACJO prior to delivery to the Yugoslav airline Aeroput in September 1933.

The A 24 shown in its guise as Blackpool, the aircraft used for the record-breaking flight to Karachi in 1932.

Cruiser II G-ACSM served in turn Spartan, British Airways, Northern & Scottish and Scottish Airlines before being impressed into RAF service in April 1940.

Cruiser III G-ADEM in the colours of Railway Air Services.

The first Mk III G-ACYK, destined to collide with a hill in Scotland. Note the ‘trouser’ fairings around the undercarriage.

G-ACYL in the colours of United Airways, to whom it was delivered in October 1934.
United Airways' Spartan Cruiser II G-ACYL on loan from Spartan Air Lines

The last Mk II G-ACZM at Blackpool’s Stanley Park in the colours of British Airways.

Surviving relic. The centre fuselage of Cruiser III G-ACYK is displayed at the Museum of Flight, East Fortune.

Spartan Air Lines original pilots: left to right R T Halliwell, R H McIntosh, P Lynch Blosse and L W van Oppen.

Poster for the Spartan Air Lines/Railway Air Services service to!from the Isle of Wight. Mk III G-ADEL is depicted.