Midland & Scottish Air Ferries was Scotland's first airline, operating from 1933 to 1934. It is particularly noted for pioneering flights to the Inner Hebrides History Foundation John Cuthill Sword started Midland Bus Services in Airdrie, to the east of Glasgow in 1924, and it grew into a substantial concern, operating over 500 buses. He was a pioneer of diesel engines for motor transport vehicles. In 1929 Midland Bus Services was merged into Scottish Transport, which in June 1932 was renamed Western SMT, part of the Scottish Motor Traction (SMT) company based in Edinburgh. As a result, Sword was paid around £290,000 for his company, became general manager of Western SMT, and was appointed to the SMT board. SMT, in which the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) held a stake, had itself been active in aviation; from July to October 1932 it had operated several aircraft which it used for route surveying and pleasure flights. It had also been granted licences to fly between Newcastle and the north of Scotland. Notwithstanding that, on 10 March 1933 Sword, with his wife Christina, founded their own airline, Midland & Scottish Air Ferries (M&SAF), with £20,000 capital. He is reported to have believed that "so long as the main-line railway routes are avoided there are air-service prospects in this small country of ours". His plans focused on over-water routes from Glasgow. John Sword had already ordered several aircraft, the first to be delivered to his base at Glasgow's Renfrew Airport being De Havilland Fox Moth G-ACBZ, which arrived on 8 February. Airspeed Ferry G-ACBT came fresh from the manufacturer's factory in York on 12 February. Sword ordered a second Ferry and three more Fox Moths the same month – his total investment in aircraft costing £12,000. He was also assembling his staff. He hired SMT's chief pilot Harold Malet and their chief engineer Sandy Jack. He also hired Johnny Rae (a De Havilland test pilot), Jimmy Orrell (an ex RAF fighter pilot, later to become chief test pilot of Avro), Michael Noel Mavrogordato (ex De Havilland) and Winnie Drinkwater, all qualified engineers and pilots. Drinkwater was an enthusiastic pilot and engineer, newly qualified and only nineteen years of age when Sword took her on, the world's first female commercial pilot. Her elder sister Mary was appointed receptionist and book-keeper, soon to become company secretary. Operations Soon after the delivery of his first