oncemorealoft
23rd Oct 2005, 22:44
Sixty years ago tonight (23 October) a Douglas DC4 of American Export Airlines ( a subsidiary of American Airlines), left New York's LaGuardia for London (Hurn) Airport via Boston, Gander and Shannon.
The flight weathered 80 knot headwinds as passengers enjoyed caviar and lobster and other fine cuisine. Total journey time to London was 23 hours.
In addition to the crew and various dignitaries and journalists, there was one fare-paying passenger who had paid nearly £600 for a one-way ticket.
This was the first scheduled transatlantic service by a landplane. Three days later Pan American Airways began scheduled transatlantic services also with DC4s. However, Pan Am flying boats had been operating scheduled services since 1939.
A few weeks later AEA, officially changed its name to American Overseas Airlines. For five years, until American Airlines sold its international subsidiary to Pan Am, the airline operated scheduled services between the USA and Shannon, London, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Berlin and Stockholm, initially with the un-pressurised DC4s and then with Lockheed Constellations and Boeing Stratocruisers.
Tonight I'm sitting in the Great Southern Hotel, Shannon Airport. The airport's green and white beacon is blinking through the windswept rain on a night not dissimilar to that of 23 October 1945. American tourists, who may well have paid less than £600 for their air tickets, are celebrating the end of their vacations.
I raise a glass of Guiness to all those aviators past, present and future, who have made flying the North Atlantic and other great oceans a dream that can come true for millions of ordinary people.
Happy landings!
The flight weathered 80 knot headwinds as passengers enjoyed caviar and lobster and other fine cuisine. Total journey time to London was 23 hours.
In addition to the crew and various dignitaries and journalists, there was one fare-paying passenger who had paid nearly £600 for a one-way ticket.
This was the first scheduled transatlantic service by a landplane. Three days later Pan American Airways began scheduled transatlantic services also with DC4s. However, Pan Am flying boats had been operating scheduled services since 1939.
A few weeks later AEA, officially changed its name to American Overseas Airlines. For five years, until American Airlines sold its international subsidiary to Pan Am, the airline operated scheduled services between the USA and Shannon, London, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Berlin and Stockholm, initially with the un-pressurised DC4s and then with Lockheed Constellations and Boeing Stratocruisers.
Tonight I'm sitting in the Great Southern Hotel, Shannon Airport. The airport's green and white beacon is blinking through the windswept rain on a night not dissimilar to that of 23 October 1945. American tourists, who may well have paid less than £600 for their air tickets, are celebrating the end of their vacations.
I raise a glass of Guiness to all those aviators past, present and future, who have made flying the North Atlantic and other great oceans a dream that can come true for millions of ordinary people.
Happy landings!