View Full Version : Flying UK to Kenya 1950
Marlyn
23rd Oct 2013, 00:17
My late Mom flew from the UK to Kenya in 1950 on a flying boat.
Would anyone know where she may have taken off from, stopped over and landed.
I am doing the Family Tree and would like to put the info in it.
Many thanks
Marlyn
gruntie
23rd Oct 2013, 07:58
There's a lot of info on previous threads: this is a good one:
Flying boat thread (http://www.pprune.org/aviation-history-nostalgia/491429-flying-boats-east-africa.html)
The flight arrangements to East Africa were very fluid at this time, the flying boats were coming to an end and the services changed quite notably from season to season. If you can give a date in 1950 we can be more precise.
For flying boat departures they took place from Southampton Docks in the morning. Passengers from London left the afternoon before by "special train" (which was often just a reserved carriage in the regular train) and stayed overnight in Southampton.
VictorGolf
23rd Oct 2013, 17:56
"the arrangements were rather fluid" which I guess they would be for a flying boat! Didn't the passengers for Nairobi land on Lake Naivasha. Apropos of nothing, Naivasha airstrip was the destination for my first solo cross-country from Nairobi Wilson back in the day.
Didn't the passengers for Nairobi land on Lake Naivasha.
We covered this one in the thread linked above. Naivasha seems to have only come on line around May 1949, when the enhanced flying boat service to East Africa started, and finished in September 1950, so was only in use for about 18 months. Before that Nairobi was served from London by airliners, BOAC Yorks and SAA DC4s, the flying boats went through Kampala and onwards. Pre-war they used Kisumu.
Apropos of nothing, Naivasha airstrip was the destination for my first solo cross-country from Nairobi Wilson back in the dayMine was Norwich. Not quite as exotic !
Marlyn - I recommend "Beyond the blue horizon" by Alexander Frater, available at all good bookshops, which re-traces the routes.
VictorGolf
24th Oct 2013, 17:32
Maybe Norwich wasn't as exotic but I bet you didn't have to do a low flyby to get rid of the dogs, horses and chaps on bicycles coming back from market that were on the runway!
Planemike
25th Oct 2013, 08:22
VG...........
What no giraffes.......???
Planemike
VictorGolf
25th Oct 2013, 09:19
Not then but probably nowadays.