Wellington Airport - 60 Years On

[Nervous SLF]

A new short documentary looking back at Wellington Airport's early days has been released, just in time for the airport's 60th birthday.
Creator Paul Davidson was 14 years old on the day the airport opened.A massive air show took place to celebrate the opening and Davidson
was anticipating a day of action, but things didn't unfold quite the way he was expecting.A Vulcan bomber was taking part in a display flight
above the airport. Just as it came in to land, the aircraft touched down just short of the runway and one of its wings clipped the ground.

https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/national/doco-reveals-almost-tragic-opening-of-wellington-airport/ar-AAJmMT1?li=BBSVtLJ


https://vimeo.com/368235820


. (https://vimeo.com/368235820)

[India Four Two]

Fantastic. I had seen the contemporary documentary videos before but this vimeo video with the commentary from the participants is very informative.

[FlightlessParrot]

I used to listen to the travel news on the radio in the morning: traffic jams in Auckland, ferries sailing or cancelled, whatever. One frequent item was the announcement that Wellington Airport was "marginal." I thought at the time that that was something I would definitely not want to know: Pilot Speaking "Hello passengers, I'm not sure about this but we'll give it a go, eh?" After looking at that video, I see I didn't realise the half of it.

[JanetFlight]

An amazing piece of aviation history.. <3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTN-x21W2kQ

[DH106]

That's amazing - thanks for the link. :)

[VictorGolf]

Excellent stuff. Just out of interest, where would the Beverley have come from?

[Wander00]

Somewhere close, or have taken a very long time.....

[DH106]

Somewhere close, or have taken a very long time.....

:E :} Good one! ;)

[Brian 48nav]

VG

I have Bill Overton's book, 'Blackburn Beverley', in it he wrote that the aircraft that attended the opening of Wellington Airport was XM104 which was part of the Beverley Flight attached to 48 Sqn at RAF Changi. It staged through Djakarta, Bali, Darwin, Amberley, Whenuapai, and Ohakea. The flight was moved to RAF Seletar on 1st October 1960 and became 34 Sqn.

[treadigraph]

I was going to suggest that the Beverley actually set a world record for the slowest circumnavigation of the world by aerial conveyance, overtaken enroute by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager in Voyager...

[VictorGolf]

Thanks Brian. Quite a trip for the old girl. I hope the Kiwis appreciated it.

[tcasblue]

Somewhere close, or have taken a very long time.....

I heard a saying for the Beverly was that it could fly a golf ball around the world or a heavy load to its next door neighbour.