Tempting! Susan Celebrates Birthday On New Flight. Susan Gillette tempts Sir Miles Thomas, B.O.A.C. Chairman, with a piece of her eighth birthday cake, which she cut in the plane before leaving-on her 8,000 miles flight to Hong Kong. Sir Miles was there to inaugurate the first service. Inaugurating British Overseas Airways Corporation's first landplane service to Hong Kong, the Argonaut, new 36-ton, 40-seater, pressurised, air-conditioned monoplane left London Airport. Passengers included Mrs. B. Gillette of Bristol, and her four children, going out to Hong Kong to join her husband. One of the children, Susan, celebrates tar eighth birthday in the air. The plane will reach Hong Kong-in three days. August 23, 1949.