Chichester However, for airliners in this period the UK lagged behind European countries. In 1931 Belgium operator Sabena was the only other European airline company using British aircraft. The aeroplanes of German manufacturer Junkers and Dutch company Fokker were dominant and after 1930 American passenger aircraft took a leading part. In 1938 Neville Chamberlain flew a British Airways Ltd Lockheed 10 Electra for his meeting with Adolf Hitler. The reasons for this were not difficult to find. Imperial Airways largely ignored European routes preferring to focus on imperial markets in Africa and India. Imperial Airways' Handley Page aircraft were comfortable and safe but slow. There was no competition on these routes, so there was little incentive to spend money on developing new, faster and more efficient aircraft. Flying boats However, the lack of suitable landing airfields in many Empire counties in the inter War period did lead to Imperial Airways commissioning Short Brothers in 1935 to build 28 flying boat aircraft for passengers and freight (particularly airmail). The Second World War effectively stopped the further development of the flying boat as after the War there were plenty of suitable land aircraft, notably the Douglas DC-3, and airfields for flying boats to be redundant. Research and Development The aviation industry was to benefit significantly from aeronautical research carried out in the late 1920s and the 1930s. The academic centres were University of Cambridge, where they had established a chair in aeronautical engineering in 1919, and, indeed, most of the leading British aeronautical engineers were Cambridge graduates, and Imperial College London. For instance, Sir Frank Whittle the inventor and developer of the jet engine and W.E.W. Petter the designer of the Westland Lysander and, after World War Two, the English Electric Canberra, and Folland Gnat, both studied mechanical sciences at Cambridge University. John Siddeley, 1st Baron Kenilworth, the aero engine producer, gave Cambridge University £10,000 for aeronautical research and the arm dealer Basil Zaharoff endowed a chair of aviation at Imperial College. Much work was also done at the Royal Aircraft Establishment in Farnborough, Hampshire, the research and development organisation under the auspices of the Air Ministry. Research work was, for instance, carried out in wind tunnels, and other projects such as research on electrical heating systems for guns, reliable navigation lamps, better engine magnetos and ignition systems. 1910: Avro company formed 1910: First flight of British Army Airship Beta 1910: First