Operations began from the
Stag Lane Aerodrome at Edgware, using the aircraft of the London Flying School. Subsequently, the
Aircraft Manufacturing Company (later the
De Havilland Aircraft Company), hired an
Airco DH.9 along with pilot entrepreneur
Alan Cobham. In its early years, Aerofilms had links with pioneer
cinematographer
Claude Friese-Greene. From 1921, Aerofilms carried out vertical photography for survey and mapping purposes. During the 1930s, the company pioneered the science of
photogrammetry (mapping from aerial photographs), with the
Ordnance Survey amongst the company's clients. In its earliest days, the main work of the company had been oblique photography, and the images were often sold to postcard manufacturers. In 1925,
Aircraft Operating Company took over Aerofilms, and expanded its operations, based at Hendon. In 1940, the company's staff and state-of-the-art equipment were co-opted into the war effort, forming the nucleus of the Allied Photographic Interpretation Unit at
Medmenham. It was at this time that Sir Percy Hunting became interested in the company, which led Aerofilms to become a member of the Hunting Group of Companies in 1942. After the war, Aerofilms became responsible for oblique photography, whilst
Hunting Aerosurveys undertook vertical photography for survey. Post-war redevelopment and industrial expansion kept both Aerofilms and Hunting Surveys Ltd hard at work, which has resulted in an expansive library of historic aerial photography. Unlike other photographic libraries, a significant percentage of Aerofilms photos is already in the public domain, albeit protected by copyright. The company would send out batches of photos to public libraries, and many remain there today. In addition, key images were reproduced as postcards from the 1920s through to the 1980s. In addition to Aerofilms’ own imagery, the firm expanded its holdings with the purchase of two smaller collections – AeroPictorial (1934-1960) and Airviews (1947-1991). In 1997, the parent company of Simmons Mapping (UK) Ltd acquired Aerofilms Limited, and in 2001, the two companies merged to form Simmons Aerofilms Ltd. In 2005, Simmons Aerofilms was taken over by Norwegian-based geographical information and offshore technology company
Blom and is now known as Blom Aerofilms / Blom UK. The photo library and associated photolabs were closed in 2006. In June 2007, Blom sold the historic Aerofilms oblique library to
English Heritage in partnership with The
Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS) and The
Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales (RCAHMW). Since then the bulk of the negatives from 1919 to the early 1950s have been digitised, geo-referenced and made available online as Britain from Above. The digitization project took 4 years with financial help from the
Heritage Lottery Fund, The Foyle Foundation and other donors and now, over 95,000 images are available on the website. Photographs attributed to Aerofilms Ltd are also held in the
Conway Library at
The Courtauld Institute of Art whose archive, of primarily architectural images, is being digitised under the wider Courtauld Connects project. ==Publication of photos==