View Full Version : 60th Anniversary of 1st long-haul flight!
rgsaero
11th Jun 2011, 20:52
This July will be the 60th anniversary of my first long-haul flight, and judging by the last three I've been on, I don't think they get any better - just a bit quicker!
July '51 I flew to Singapore in a BOAC Constellation and back in an Argonaut. Three days each way with outward lunch stop in Rome (and a bus tour of the city), and overnight in Cairo and another in Karachi, with intermediate refuels at Bahrain and finally Calcutta before landing at the "old" Singapore airport on the south side of the island.
You knew you'd traveled and saw (and I mean saw) some interesting places on the way. Now you leave a garish tin shed at one end and disembark into another some hours later. No fun at all really! The queues were shorter at immigration then too; turn up half an hour before departure.....!
At least your second flight was on a fine Canadian aircraft!
ChicoG
13th Jun 2011, 08:22
Ah, they must have been heady times. Did you ever fly on one of these? :E
http://www.bahrainairport.com/bia/images/history_02.jpg
rgsaero
14th Jun 2011, 04:44
ChicoG - Sadly no! They were a bit before my time, as I was born just pre-war. I did however get to fly on a commercial bi-plane - the Dragon Rapide. They were in service on the Lands End to Scilly Isles route and I did that trip once.
And yes, Zait, Canadian indeed. But the engines were English designed though probably made by Packard, Merlins. They were a hell of a sight noisier than the good old round ones on the Connie.
Please remind me, what was the accident rate per million passenger miles then ...... and now ?
Also, how many months did you have to work to pay the fare then ...... and now ?
Dairyground
15th Jun 2011, 00:15
Also, how many months did you have to work to pay the fare then ...... and now ?
I don't know about scheduled fares to Singapore in 1951, but my first longhaul flight, in 1960, cost me £70 return and I earned enough to cover it in about three weeks as a casual tobacco picker in Canada.
The flight was from London to New York (Heathrow to Idlewild) on a charter from KLM, outbound in a Super Constellation with refuelling stops in Shannon and Gander, return non-stop in a DC7C. And that £70 included bus transport from New York to Toronto (but not back).
Looking at the BA website, their cheapest London - New York return today seems to be about £600, or around three weeks work at the minimum wage.
rgsaero
15th Jun 2011, 16:45
WHBM - fortunately I was not being trafficked as a child labourer, being only 12, so I know not the wage rates at the time. My fare was paid by my step-fathers employer; way back then many expatriot workers were allowed to bring their children out for the summer holidays one summer between their home leave every three years.
But Dairyground's information seems to say "reasonable", and almost certainly less expensive than the equivalent boat fare - also quicker!