I found some more small scraps of info on O.P. Jones in
. It is interesting to note that although O.P. is mentioned several times, there are no 'funny anecdotes' or anything like that. This book was written in a style which is more descriptive, it obviously was more important to Penrose to set out the facts than to provide a feeling of the time and place. Nothing wrong with that of course but it makes for less riveting reading.
On the other hand, reading the short, factual accounts such as these makes you realise that flying an airliner in those days was nothing like what we're used to now!
Additions by me are in brackets.
Snags with the Jaguar engine were persisting. On 8 December (1926) an Argosy piloted by O.P. Jones en route for Croydon broke a tappet rod and then oil pressure dropped on another engine, but he landed safely at nearby Pluckley and sent the twelve passengers on by train to London. Replacing the tappet rod next day he flew to Croydon, arriving at the same time as the first of the triple-engined DH Hercules.
(On 9th May 1932) ... the sister airliner (HP42) Horatius, flown by O.P. Jones, with thirteen passengers aboard, was climbing through cloud to reach clear skies above Tonbridge when lightning fused the trailing aerial, burnt out the wireless installation, and dislodged a window which damaged the adjacent propeller, resulting in considerable vibration, so Jones turned back and landed again at Croydon - but five of his passengers refused to continue after that experience, though the other eight left with him soon afterwards in the Helena.
Though the press made sensational news of air accidents it was equally ready with stories of derring-do and even about airline pilots. One of the first to feature was Capt Oscar Philip Jones, known as 'O.P.' by his contemporaries but more cautiously by juniors whom he addressed as 'Mister'. He was headlined in May (1934) as the air pilot who had flown one million miles and carried 65,000 passengers without accident, but it was his air of command and raking jutting beard which intrigued newspapermen.
(About a flight with the prototype AW Ensign on 11 October 1938 with 50 invited guests.) Capts O.P. Jones and Horsey made the smoothest of landings.
In England a glorious Easter (1939) produced a record number of air travellers, 40 machines leaving for Paris and 30 for Le Touquet during Thursday and Friday, and extra aircraft were required on the Scandinavian and Austrian routes. Heracles, returning at midnight, encountered a phenomenal bump over Croydon which put Capt O.P. Jones through the roof and injured the crew, so that all appeared in bandages the next day; luckily the steward and stewardess had insisted on the passengers securing their belts.
The route to Russia was also changed (in 1943), for the hazards had become too great, and it was agreed that BOAC should fly direct to Moscow by a Mediterranean route which Capt O.P. Jones pioneered with Mr. Maisky, the Russian ambassador, aboard. From Cairo they flew to Habbaniya near Baghdad, then skirted the Caspian Sea to Kuibyshev, but on his return flight Capt Jones made for Teheran, and this became the adopted route flown by Liberators.
Meanwhile pilots of the Atlantic Ferry were allocated to the Constellations, and on 1 July (1946) the London-New York service was opened by Capt J.G. Percy flying from London, and on the 3rd Capt O.P. Jones flew the reverse run from New York.
Highlight of BOAC's activities in October (1951) was the midnight flood-lit departure to Montreal of Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh aboard the Stratocruise flagship Canopus commanded by that distinctively bearded personality Capt O.P. Jones.
But now came historic change. Churchill at 80 resigned the premiership. Elections in May (1955) resulted in victory for the Conservatives and Sir Anthony Eden became Prime Minister. That month another famous personality resigned: Capt O.P. Jones of the much-publicized jutting beard. At 56 he had completed 21,600 hours, crossing the English Channel 6,000 times and the Atlantic 300, carrying 140,000 passengers. Such long and devoted service earned an illuminated certificate.