Bermuda's Aviation History and pioneers

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Bermuda's aviation history and pioneers

Military and civilian individuals who earned their special local flying claims to fame

To refer to this web file, please use "bermuda-online.org/aviation.htm" as your Subject.

Welcome to this special file on how these islands got their first aircraft, the men behind the initiatives, others who are etched permanently in Bermuda history, how Bermuda established several enduring claims to fame - and more.

Book to note: "The Flying Boats of Bermuda". Pomeroy, Colin. E-mail at CPomeroy@aol.com. Written by a retired Squadron Leader of the Royal Air Force once based here, about a fascinating period in Bermuda history, mostly from 1937 to 1948. 254 pages.

Chronology of aircraft, flying boat and seaplane initiatives, adventures and losses

1918. October 18. The Bermuda Colonist newspaper published this account of the gallantry and heroism of Bermuda's military hero in the UK, Lieutenant Arthur Rowe Spurling.

We commence this chronology with not what happened in Bermuda but what this Bermudian captioned above did above the battlefields of Europe as a Royal Flying Corps pilot flying for his mother-country. Earlier, he'd been in the Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps, was one of their contingent shipped to England to join Lincolnshire Regiment. From there he was accepted by the Royal Flying Corps, later the Royal Air Force. A formation of British machines had been carrying out some important operations well over the German lines. On the return journey the weather suddenly became hazy, and one of the pilots, Lieutenant Spurling, lost touch with the formation in the clouds. The British pilot set his course due west, and flew on for some time. Having made what he thought was sufficient allowance for the distance to the British lines, he put down the nose of his machine and saw beneath him an aerodrome. The wind, however, freshened considerably, and so far as covering the ground was concerned he had been making only half the speed shown on airspeed indicator. As he circled over the aerodrome, preparing to land, a German Scout machine suddenly appeared from the clouds above him, and immediately to attack. Marveling at the unusual temerity of the German in daring to attack over an English aerodrome, the British pilot checked his descent and opened fire on his attacker. At this moment he became aware that no fewer than thirty German machines were actually climbing towards him from the aerodrome. Realizing now that he was over an enemy aerodrome, he dived towards the first group of German squadrons, both he and his observer firing on every machine upon which they could get their guns to bear. The enemy pilots appeared too bewildered by the outstanding audacity of the British airmen to attack them effectively at first, and their own tremendous numerical superiority seemed further to confuse them. One German plane burst into flames in the air, two more went down spinning and side slipping completely out of control. Four enemy scouts had by this time got into position to attack, clinging to the tail of the British machine. Two of these were sent blazing to earth. Shaking himself clear of the remainder, the British pilot opened his throttle and sped homewards leaving on that German aerodrome three blazing wrecks, and two other crashed machines as a highly satisfactory outcome of what might have proved a fatal mistake.

Lieutenant Spurling was believed to have flown one of the new Sopwith Snipe aircraft mentioned below

Manufacturer: Sopwith Aviation Company
Type: Fighter
First Introduced: 1918
Number Built: 497
Engine: Bentley B.R.2, 230 hp
Wing Span: 31 ft 1 in
Length: 19 ft 10 in
Height: 9 ft 6 in
Empty Weight: 1312 lb
Gross Weight: 2020 lb
Max Speed: 121 mph
Ceiling: 19,500 ft
Endurance: 3 hrs
Crew: 1
Armament: 2 machine guns

1918. November 2. A prestigious military decoration was awarded to a Bermudian First World War hero in London. He was Lieutenant Arthur Rowe Spurling, from Hamilton.

Earlier, he'd been awarded another medal, the Star Trio. He was presented with the Distinguished Flying Cross for flying his bomber into the centre of a formation of some 30 German planes. He and his observer shot three down in flames and sent two others crashing to the ground. He had sent a postcard sent to his half-sister Ethel in Bermuda after he was injured twice on the front line. He and his wife had a daughter, Ilys Spurling Marsh, who was brought up at "Penarth", the family home in Rosemont Avenue. Her father rarely talked about his wartime experiences, including the heroics which led to his DFC. Her father, known as Rowe, was born in 1896 and joined the Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps in February 1915, sailing with the first war contingent for England in May and soon after being posted to the Lincolnshire Regiment. His 1916 postcard to Ethel describes how was "wounded in the hand" on July 3 and returned to the front to be "wounded in the foot and buried for a few hours" on July 13. He was commissioned in July 1917 and qualified for service in the Royal Flying Corps in September, before being posted to France and joining 49 Squadron in July 1918. His DFC was announced in the London Gazette on this day, in a report which described how he got separated from his formation and was attacked by a Fokker biplane at 2,000 feet. "Lt. Spurling then observed some 30 machines of the same type, heavily camouflaged; with great gallantry he dived through the centre of the formation, shooting down one machine in flames; two others were seen to be in a spin." Five of them then closed on his machine, but by skilful manoeuvring, Lt. Spurling enabled his observer to shoot down two of these in flames. The three remaining aircraft broke off the combat and disappeared in the mist. A fine performance, reflecting the greatest credit on this officer and his observer." He returned a hero to Bermuda after the First World War and obtained his commission again in World War II, serving in Canada with RAF Ferry Command, where he was credited with unearthing a Nazi spy. He married Ilys Darrell in 1948 and ran a taxi service on the Island, as well as importing mushrooms and starting the Rowe Spurling paint supply company. He and his wife moved to Guernsey in the early 1970s but eventually sold up there with a plan to return to Bermuda. Instead, Lt. Spurling developed Alzheimer's Disease and died in a nursing home in England, aged 88. His body was flown back to the Island for a funeral at the Anglican Cathedral and he is buried in Pembroke.

Lieutenant Arthur Rowe Spurling in WW1 (left) and as a Royal Air Force officer in WW2 (right)

1919. May 22. First aircraft seen in Bermuda

Burgess N-9H Jenny. A-2646. It was flown over the City of Hamilton Harbor by United States Navy Ensigns G. L. Richard and W. H. Cushing. With registration number A2646, it was powered by a Wright-Hispano 150 horsepower engine. It was a naval scout hydro-airplane that normally traveled on the deck of her mother ship the USS Elinore. The aircraft had a gross weight of 2765 pounds and a top speed of 80 miles per hour. The 8725 ton cargo vessel was launched in 1917 as the General de Castelnau and was transferred from the US Shipping Board to the US Navy for war service. After the war, she had dumped gas drums and mustard gas shells in deep waters off Virginia. In 1919, she was in the town of St. George in Bermuda after a scientific research voyage south of Bermuda, sheltering from bad weather. The sole passenger on the airplane was Governor General Sir James Willcocks. He dropped from the open cockpit the first "Air Letter" posted in Bermuda.

1919. Bermuda and West Atlantic Aviation Company formed

1920. April. Three Supermarine Channel 3-passenger flying boats arrived in Bermuda

They were G-EAFF, G-EAEG and G-EAEJ. They arrived by ship and joined the Avro aircraft of Bermuda and West Atlantic Aviation for sightseeing tours of Bermuda. The "Short" flight was for 10 minutes to Gibb's Hill Lighthouse then back to Hinson's Island; the "Middle Tour" was for 20 minutes, over Spanish Point, North Shore. South Shore; the "Grand" Tour over most of Bermuda; and "Special Charter" included stops. One of the latter was for the actress Pearl White.

1925. February 20. Airship "Los Angeles" visits Bermuda

After a safe flight across the Bermuda Triangle from the USA, the famous United States Navy dirigible airship the ZR-3 Los Angeles (ex LZ126) which had earlier made a unique appearance over Washington, DC during the Presidential inauguration of President Herbert Hoover, made history in Bermuda. She brought the very first delivery of official "Airmail" (200 lbs or 90 kilos) which it dropped from the sky, in three mailbags containing 2,341 items, close to the home of Bermuda's Colonial Postmaster. The Los Angeles was only a year old then. She was built in Germany in 1924 by the Zeppelin factory as part of that country's war reparations to the United States. Her two later sister-ships the "Graf Zeppelin" and "Hindenburg" were destined to make history of their own across the Atlantic and over Bermuda before the next decade finished. On board, guests included Rear Admiral William A. Moffat, USN and Secretary of the Navy , Theodore Robinson. As there was no suitable site for an airship docking facility in Bermuda, the airship tender USS Patoka, with a mooring tower on its stern, sailed to Bermuda. Storms prevented the docking of the airship.

1925. April 21-34. Second visit of airship "Los Angeles"

On this occasion, the docking in Bermuda with the USS Patoka was successful and mail was delivered and collected for New York.

1928. October 15. "Graff Zeppelin" LZ-127 flew over Bermuda

She was flying from Friedrichshafen to Lakehurst, New Jersey, on her first transatlantic flight, having made her maiden flight less than a month earlier. Her visit was unexpected, due to a squall to the west of Bermuda. She did not stop, but she dropped some mail after a tear in the fabric of her top fin was repaired.

Captain W. N. Lancaster attempted to fly from Long Island, USA, to Bermuda in the Ireland class seaplane of this name, as part of an attempt on the London to Cape Town speed record for the Putnam Expedition. He was accompanied by Lieutenant H. W. Lyon and sponsor G. P. Putnam. He was not successful. The team tried again, this time from Hampton Roads, Virginia, again with no luck. Unconfirmed reports said the plane sank 185 miles from Bermuda.

1929. May 21. Channel. G-EAEJ. Aircraft of the Bermuda and Western Atlantic Aviation Company. Lost.

1930. April 1. "Pilot Radio" aircraft saga thrills Bermuda

On April 1, 1930, three Americans began their own version of the Great American Dream - and caused a great Bermuda one. Captain Lewis Alonzo Yancey, William H. Alexander and Zeh Bouck were determined to carve out their own unique niche in aviation history by being the first to make the then-hazardous journey by air from the North American mainland.

Their plane was a customized Stinson SM-1FS "Detroiter" monoplane mounted on a pair of EDO floats, powered by a single 300 horsepower Wright Whirlwind motor, completely without navigational aids except a compass and a single US Navy survey map. The plane had a top speed of 118 miles per hour, a cruising speed of 100 miles an hour and a standard cruising range of 550 miles which left no margin of error.

With Yancey navigating, Alexander piloting and Bouck operating his primitive, portable on-board radio equipment, the trio of intrepid aviators launched themselves and their flying machine, which they named Pilot Radio, into the skies above New York State and headed east, hoping to make a non-stop flight to Bermuda and a pinpoint landing in Bermuda - an impossible ambition with their lack of radio-direction-finding equipment and the fact that such RDF equipment capable of sending a guiding beam to an aircraft in flight was not to be introduced into Bermuda until six years later.

Nevertheless, clad in their heavy leather flying suits and goggles, they gunned their frail craft over the Atlantic - and prayed that their fates would indeed lead them to Bermuda and into fame and fortune. They were lucky. When night embraced the Atlantic ocean and sky in a curtain so thickly black that they could not even see the stars to use basic celestial navigational principles they were lost, their map and compass useless. They were also out of fuel. Their aircraft had consumed more than had been estimated, as its propeller had bitten into the winds and salt spray of the Atlantic air-currents.

They had no option but to land on water, to wait out the long hours of dark. Somehow, their plane floated, instead of sinking. Their hopes had not been entirely dashed. They knew they were somewhere in the vicinity of Bermuda. With the wireless equipment provided by the radio magazine that had sponsored them, which resulted in the plane being named Pilot Radio, they sent their call-sign '2XBQ' repeatedly into the night ether.

Little did Yancy, Alexander and Bouck know at the time that they were not the only ones to incur a sleepless, worried night. In Bermuda, the staff at the St. George's Cable & Wireless Station had also been up all night, transmitting on the 600 meters wavelength, trying to contact the plane. In the very early half-light hours of April 2, the by then very weak '2XBQ' signal transmitted from the plane on batteries that had nearly run down, was heard by Wireless Station operators in Bermuda. Using their more powerful set, they gave Morse-code directions to the downed aviators. They also put out a call to the West India Oil Company at St. George's, which supplied a boat and crew to take out and pump a fresh supply of fuel for the aircraft of the intrepid aviators. And it was from the Wireless Station that the authorities and general public of Bermuda were first informed of a drama at sea, with Captain Yancey and his crew having announced their incredible intention of trying to take off again from the Atlantic, to resume their epoch-making flight to Bermuda. Their dream of making the first-ever direct flight from North America to Bermuda was still intact, even if it had been dented a little with a nightfall touchdown on the Atlantic Ocean surface.

Later that day, Yancey, Alexander and Bouck successfully took off from the ocean and sighted Bermuda. They made a triumphant landing at 10 am in Hamilton Harbor. When they set foot on dry land, they were mobbed by ecstatic Bermudians - and hailed as trailblazers. Among the greeters was a Miss Kathleen Jones who presented Easter lilies to the crew of the plane. In the celebrations that followed, which included several fly-pasts of "Pilot Radio" around Bermuda, they were presented with $1,000 apiece ($1,500 from the Trade Development Board, $1,000 from the Hotel Men's Association and $500 from the Bermuda Poll Committee).

Bermudians saw in that unique flight a vision of things to come - of aircraft that would one day leave the USA loaded with US tourists, bound for a holiday in our beautiful Islands. But Captain Yancey and his crew uttered words of caution to temper the jubilation. He prophesied that regular service by airplane would commence to Bermuda only when aircraft and Bermuda were equipped with proper RDF equipment to aid pilots and navigators. He also decided that it would tempt fate too much to attempt to fly back to the US mainland from Bermuda in Pilot Radio. So he, Alexander and Bouck dismantled and crated it for departure on the MS Bermuda - and left on that ship, for a slower but safer voyage by sea back to their homeland. However, they did leave one part of their historic aircraft behind them. They presented the Bermuda Historical Society with its gyro compass. Unfortunately, no one knows what happened to the historic instrument. Searches have found that it is no longer in the Society's hands. It may have been misplaced or stolen years ago.

1931. Flight to/from Bermuda of seaplane "Tradewind." Lost

It began well but ended in tragedy. With Mrs. Beryl Hart and Lieutenant William S. McLaren of the US Naval Reserve aboard, the white painted Bellanca CH300 high wing seaplane landed safely in Bermuda from Hampton Roads on January 7, on the first leg of a journey across the Atlantic, on the second attempt. Both wanted to show the commercial possibility of the route. But after three days in Bermuda, the plane took off to the Azores and then disappeared into a huge black cloud. The occupants were never heard from again.

1931. August 31. "Pusher." Silver Wings Lost

Curtiss HS-2L flying boat representation

Pilot C. Nelmes of Bermuda was killed when his aircraft a Curtiss HS-2L aircraft, of World War 1 vintage, of the type once used by the United States Navy and Canadian authorities but later deemed by the former to be too dangerous to fly after 1928, crashed at Grassy Bay off HM Dockyard when over-flying a ship. There were two survivors. It is believed that Nelmes bought his Curtiss HS-2L in Canada, from OPAS. This aircraft is believed to have been one of the first aircraft registered in Bermuda. This flying boat made its debut as a warplane by patrolling against enemy submarines. The manufacturer was Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Co. Inc. of Hammondsport and Buffalo, NY, and the patrol flying boat was built under license by Galaudett Flying Boat Company, College Point, Long Island, NY. Its wingspan was just over 74 feet; height 14' 7"; length 38' 6"; top speed 91 mph; range 517 miles; empty weight 4,700 lbs; gross weight 6,432 lbs; fuel capacity was 141 gallons; crew were three people; service ceiling was 5,000 feet; engine was a Liberty 12 at 350 HP and the sea level climb was 220 feet per minute.

The United States Navy flew them on anti-submarine duty off the East Coast from bases in Nova Scotia. When WW1 was over, they donated twelve of the planes to Canada. In 1919, the first HS-2Ls went into Canadian civil use in Québec forestry work, remaining the predominant bush aircraft until 1926 or 1927. It was to mark the dawn of the Canadian bush pilot tradition. The Ontario Provincial Air Service (OPAS) was formed by the Government of Ontario in 1924 to protect the province's vast forests. At the time it was one of the largest airborne forest services in the world. They constructed a hangar at the edge of the St Mary's River in Sault Ste. Marie to house their fleet of surplus Curtiss HS-2L's. Using aerial detection of forest fires, aerial transportation of fire crews and equipment, map making, aerial photography, and forest inventory, they ushered in a new era of ecological maintenance -- in their first year of operation alone, 600 forest fires were spotted. The wooden hull of the flying boat presented a few disadvantages. It could be damaged by rocks or dead trees, and had a tendency to get waterlogged after the long weeks and even months it spent in water. This increased the weight of the craft and caused performance to become sluggish. The aircraft needed to land in a fairly large lake to be able to take off again. It often required a mile to take off and climbed so slowly that it needed a lake or sea surface of 3 to 5 miles in length to achieve sufficient height to clear trees and hills. Its average speed was about 65 miles per hour (105 km/hr). The H-boat, as it was known, had an ambiguous safety record - it could land in rough water, but if it stalled and went into a spin, it was impossible to pull it out again. The U.S. Navy branded it as too dangerous for violent maneuvers, and afterward there were few accidents - as one USN officer said: "All the good HS-2L pilots were killed off by 1923, and therefore there were no more accidents."

1932. July. USS Akron, ZRS-4, flew from Lakehurst to Bermuda

She was searching for the missing yacht Curlew. It was not a success but a valuable operational exercise.

1933. British military seaplanes were based in Bermuda

A hanger was constructed at the Royal Navy Dockyard in Sandys Parish and the small RAF Bermuda station began. Although controlled by the Royal Navy, the base was manned entirely by Royal Air Force personnel. But all British aircraft were all part of the Fleet Air Arm (FAA). They included a number of Hawker Osprey, Fairey Seafox and Supermarine Walrus seaplanes, catapult-launched from warships.

1934. May. Darrell's Island seaplane port conceived in Bermuda

A direct result of Juan Trippe's initiatives in creating Pan American World Airways, Darrell's Island in Bermuda's Great Sound, once an internment camp for Boer War prisoners, was selected as Bermuda's first seaplane airport. His Pan American World Airways was ready to chart new Atlantic routes. He wanted the New York to Bermuda and a Bermuda to Europe run, via the Azores. But he had problems acquiring landing rights in the Azores and in Newfoundland, to link to his proposed Bermuda service. Nor could he resolve the problem of navigating over the Atlantic without radio direction finding. Frustrated, he turned to the Far East, where there was less bureaucracy over landing rights, an easier navigational system of staging posts - and the lure of Hawaii, Pacific islands and Philippines, on the route to China. Juan Trippe had seen for himself, in visits by sea to Bermuda, how the British Furness Withy organization, to attract tourists on its New York to Bermuda ships, had built new hotels in Bermuda. He borrowed the idea for the Pacific and began construction of a chain of Bermuda style hotels for his many Pan American staging posts on the China Clipper route. Thus he started some unique tourism history of his own that Bermuda was later to copy (local records claim, inaccurately, that Bermuda was the forerunner of tourism).

His flying boats scored outstanding successes because of their ability to fly long distances or to carry large payloads over short distances, and because the cost of constructing terminal facilities was appreciably lower than on land. Also, they had a better chance of surviving a forced landing on water. So they flourished at a time when, by and large, land based aircraft were not available with comparable payload and range performance. No commercial airline today would operate a four engine aircraft without stopping, across the Atlantic or Pacific with a payload of only 20 passengers, but Pan American World Airways did so very successfully then.

1935. British Government pushed to compete with Trippe

In 1935 in Ottawa, Canada, British civil aviation interests matched Trippe's initiatives. United Kingdom and other major British Empire nations wanted air services to connect the Empire for joint defence and better trade relations. They authorized service between Canada and Britain, a Canadian transcontinental system, New York to Bermuda and further trans Atlantic flights by British and American aircraft. It was the dawn of a new era for Bermuda. From the meeting in Ottawa came the plans that made possible the firm idea of the creation of regular flying boat flights between New York and Bermuda and points east by Imperial Airways and Pan American World Airways - and the establishment of Trans Canada Air Lines, later Air Canada.

The intention was to create for the passenger traffic and mail conveyancing of the British Empire a carbon copy of what had occurred in the United States. There, a network of small domestic air companies had been knitted together to form a sophisticated air transport system. It included Western Air Lines, United Air Lines, Eastern Air Lines and Northwest Air Lines.

The American air industry had commenced development of a fleet of new land airplanes, such as the Boeing 247 transport in 1933, the Douglas DC-1 and DC-2 and the first DC-3s. American carriers with their new planes were capable of snatching the bulk of traffic away from British interests, unless the British aircraft industry became aggressive.

The problem was particularly acute in Canada, where tentacles of American carriers had penetrated significantly into Canadian cities close to the American border; and elsewhere, given the domination that Juan Trippe's Pan American World Airways had established with its overseas and over-water routes with Sikorksy flying boats.

Imperial Airways needed aircraft of similar caliber, not only to fly the Atlantic but also to meet its obligations in India and Australia imposed on it by the Imperial Government's Empire Air Mail scheme. With the huge bulk of mail this involved, Imperial Airways invited tenders from prominent aircraft manufacturers in Britain. Only one responded - Short Brothers - with the proposal for its Short Empire 'C' class flying boat. With no other options to pursue, Imperial accepted. Seldom in the history of commercial aviation was such a gamble taken on an untried and untested aircraft. Never in the field of human history since has such a gamble paid such handsome dividends. There was no time for normal extensive prototype development of the type that commercial aviation today requires and regulatory agencies demand. Forty-two Short Empire 'C' class British flying boats began coming off the production lines, at the rate of two a month - and were put into immediate service by Imperial Airways to India and Australia.

1936. April 24. A. W. "Bill" Forbes pioneered Radio Direction finding for commercial aircraft in Bermuda.

On April 24, 1936 the late W. W. "Bill" Forbes (who died when he was nearly 97 on August 31, 1996) first arrived in Bermuda by ship from Britain. He led a team of specialists from Cable & Wireless who began to pioneer in Bermuda for the Imperial Government a superior system and station for Air to Ground radio-direction finding for ships. In 1937, he led the team in both Air to Ground and Ship-to-Shore point-to point radio direction finding and telegraph services for aircraft. When, on May 6, 1936 the German Zeppelin Transport Company began its Hindenburg air ship from Berlin, Bermuda's Cable and Wireless station, particularly including Mr. Forbes, had day and night activity. Via radio telephone, its 36 staff guided aircraft, dirigibles and ships across the Atlantic. This was done with bearings, messages, weather conditions and more. They worked shifts around the clock, in a constant atmosphere of clicking machines, hum and distinctive odor of electrical equipment, signal buzzes and voices calling from the air and sea via loudspeakers. They handled often chronic daily emergencies at sea or in the air near or far beyond Bermuda. They had to breakfast, lunch or dine on eggs, bacon and toast cooked up on a hot plate at work for many days at a time, with makeshift meals interrupted by emergencies.

1936. September 1. German aircraft in Bermuda

1936 German plane in Bermuda with swastika

Germany's efforts in the North Atlantic attracted huge interest. The program was administered by Freiherr von Buddenbrock who was Atlantic Air Transport Director of Deutsche Luft Hansa. He went to the USA on the first flight and returned on the last. When Luft Hansa - Lufthansa - founded in 1926 began in services from Germany to Brazil in 1936, it used five models of the Dornier Do 18 on its service from Berlin to Lisbon to the Azores to Bermuda to New York, USA, periodically when weather conditions required, also from New York to Sydney, Nova Scotia, from there to the Azores and Lisbon. They were improvements on the Dornier Wal (Whale) flying boats. The only snag was that they could not use Ireland - the Irish had barred them from using Galway Bay, the only suitable place in Ireland. The crews of the two flying boats Aeolus (see left photo, in Bermuda) and Zephyr that visited Bermuda included Flugkapitans Blankenburg, von Engel, Graf Schack, Mayr, von Captain Baron F. W. Buddenbrock and Direktor Freiherr von Gablenz; wireless operators Stein and Ehlberg; flying engineer Gruschwitz and engineer Eger. The flying boats had an astonishingly good safely record. Except for a leaking radiator on the first departure there was no trouble of any sort and no replacements in either the flying boats or their Junkers Jumo heavy-oil motors. Lufthansa stationed the depot (catapult) ship Schwabenland (a converted cargo ship) west of the Azores. The most famous of the aircraft of the Ha 139 was the Nordwind - shown here - in Deutsche Luft Hansa livery of about 1938. On September 11, 1936 the aircraft began arriving in Bermuda, complete with their Nazi insignia. The first arrival was Captain Baron F. W. von Buddenbrock. There were four more visits to Bermuda by various German float planes including several by the Ha 139 made by Boem und Voss of both aircraft and battleship fame. They flew into Bermuda to get more fuel. They landed in Hamilton Harbor. Engines were four 600 hp Junkers Jumo 205C 12-cylinder diesels. Span was 88 feet 7 inches (27m). Length was 63 feet 11.75 inches (19.5 meters). Wing area was 1,259.38 square feet (117 square meters). Catapult take off weights were 38,581 pounds (17,500 kilograms). Maximum speed was 196 miles per hour (315 kilometers per hour) at sea level. Operational ceiling was 11,480 feet (3,500 meters). Maximum range was 3,395 miles (5,300 kilometers). They continued until the war ( 1939 to 1945). Unlike the flying boats it serviced which were trouble-free, the crew of the Shabenland had an arduous time. No other catapult ship could be spared for the German North Atlantic experiments so the Schwabenland had to steam across the Atlantic after each double-launch in order to start the flying boats on their next trips. In each case, the aircraft landed alongside and were then winched up or down for fuel or repair, or caterpult take-off from the ship, as the larger photos below show:

Lufthansa in Bermuda, 1936. All the five above original photos were taken by the late "Bill" Forbes in Bermuda. Copyrighted solely by him, with digital copies (not originals) loaned by him to this author, a son, exclusively for this unique History of Aviation in Bermuda website.

1936 French aircraft in Bermuda on survey flights from Paris to New York

Air France - Transatlantique's Latecoere 521 F-NORD "Lieutenant de Vaisseau Paris" made 2 visits to Bermuda when flying from Paris on surveys. Here, she is seen at the brand-new Bermuda airport on Darrell's Island.

1937. January 5. Bill Forbes Ship to-Shore radio direction finding initiatives supplement Air to Ground

On that day, Bill Forbes boarded the Royal Navy warship HMS Dragon at HM Dockyard in Bermuda. She left port next day to circumnavigate Bermuda completely, for a very special purpose. As a radio direction finding engineer, Forbes's task for the Imperial Government was to calculate and log radio direction finding calibrations by sea for ships and aircraft approaching Bermuda, having already done so by land radio direction finding. This very successful special project removed from Bermuda all remaining navigational obstacles for ships and flying boats at sea to find Bermuda and safely navigate its dangerous and extensive ring of outer coral reefs. From February 20, Forbes and his team followed this up by beginning and finishing their design, at Bermuda's highest point, The Peak in Smith's Parish, of what became the Eagle's Nest - the world's first Adcock short wave radio direction finding station, specifically for pilots and navigators of Imperial Airways and Pan American World Airways flying boats and other aircraft to home in to the signal. It was another 'first' for Bermuda in aviation support technology.

These initiatives established the navigational systems that were used in all weather conditions to safely guide ships and flying boats right into Bermuda. They made Bermuda attractive to Imperial Airways and Pan American. They put Bermuda firmly for the first time into mainstream winter and summer tourism for visitors by air from around the globe.

1937. May 17. Services to/ from New York by Imperial Airways (now British Airways) and Pan American World Airways

1937. June 12. The million dollar terminal building at Bermuda's Darrell's Island Airport was opened

August 16. Pan Am began its transatlantic proving flights to and from Bermuda

On its southerly route, its stops were at Bermuda, Azores, Lisbon, Marseilles and Southampton, England.

1937. November 17. Imperial Airways and Pan Am transferred their USA terminal from New York to Baltimore

It was because New York weather caused problems for flying boats. At Baltimore, 30,000 people welcomed the flying boats "Bermuda Clipper and "Cavalier." Flying time to Bermuda for Bermuda Clipper, with 28 passengers, was 6 hours 25 minutes, with 5 hours 45 minutes for "Cavalier" with 17 passengers.

1938. 21 January. Loss of RMA "Cavalier" G-ADUU of Imperial Airways on Bermuda service.

This Empire S-23 of Imperial Airways had become a firm favorite in Bermuda. Crashed between New York and Bermuda. Three died, ten survived after being rescued by tanker vessel "Esso Baytown." There is a plaque in tribute to the heroes and survivors at the Bermuda Anglican Cathedral.

1939. March. Pan Am's Boeing 314 NC 19604 began flying to Bermuda

The Boeing 314 "Clipper" initially replaced the S-42 on the PA 160/161 New York service and then to the UK, Far East and Bermuda. See the book Last of the Flying Clippers. The Boeing 314 Story. M. D. Klass. 2006. With amenities modeled on those of the great luxury liners of the period, the 12 Boeing-314 Clippers operated by Pan Am and the three diverted to the British Overseas Airlines Corporation under the Lend-Lease Act remain the most luxurious aircraft ever to take to the skies. The sumptuous long-range flying boats produced by the Boeing Airplane Company, which used to fly through Bermuda in the 1930s and '40s, are highlighted here. The lavishly illustrated book includes sections on the aircraft's extensive use of the Darrell's Island airport in Bermuda. They were the largest aircraft of their type ever built, with a maximum of 74 passengers and 10 crew. They used island airports such as the one then in Bermuda as intermediate stepping stones for ocean-spanning flights across the Atlantic and Pacific. The aircraft were commissioned from Boeing by Pan Am founder Juan Trippe – also the developer of Bermuda's Castle Harbour Hotel – specifically for trans-oceanic flights. PanAm operated nine of the aircraft while three were purchased by Imperial Airways, forerunner of today's British Airways and also flew through Bermuda en route to New York and other destinations. The aircraft were built between 1938 and 1941. 84,000 pounds, four-engined, they were 106 feet long, had a wing span of 152 feet and had a top speed of 199 miles per hour. They used the massive wings of Boeing's earlier XB-15 bomber prototype to achieve their enormous range. After World War Two, seaplanes became obsolete because new, long-range aircraft such as the Lockheed Constellation could cross the Atlantic and Pacific non-stop.

Also visiting in May, June and August 1939, after a very successful survey flight in 1936; were two giant 43 ton 6-engined Air France Latecoere 521/522.

They were aircraft of Air France-Transatlantique, the early name for Air France.

1939. September. British send RAF to Bermuda, take over Darrell's Island Airport

With the outbreak of World War 2 for Britain, more Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force (RAF) aircraft were based in Bermuda, at both Darrell's Island and Boaz Island. The anomaly in the command structure referred to in 1933 was rectified when this part of the Royal Navy Dockyard was transferred to the FAA and given the name of HMS Malabar. Losses galore of British and bought from USA military aircraft began to occur in and around Bermuda from 1941 to the end of the war.

1939. British construction of brand-new Royal Naval Air Station on Boaz Island

As part of the preparations for World War 2, the increased workload at HMS Malabar caused problems due to the limited space available. With so many of the locally-based or in-transit Royal Navy warships carrying catapult-launched seaplanes such as the Hawker Osprey, Fairey Seafox and Supermarine Walrus seaplanes, the need for prompt, efficient and spacious aircraft maintenance was a high priority. Thus, the new station was built. It had two good-size hangers and launching ramps on either side of the island and they allowed continuous operation in any wind direction. With the Battle of the Atlantic over, the station was reduced to care and maintenance status in 1944. Some remnants still survive.

They included Norman Sumpter, Harold Dale, Richards (first name unknown), Squires (first name unknown), Arthur (Copper) Jenkins, Charles Nunn, Robert Oatway, Fred (Red) Adderley, David Kopec, Herbert (Chummy) Zuill, Norman Jones, John Hartley Watlington and Hugh Watlington.

1940. August. Bermudian graduates of Bermuda Flying School left for England on SS Mataroa, bound for the Royal Air Force, or for Canada with the RCAF

Others, who joined separately included Martin Smith, later a Bermuda barrister, who did not graduate from the Bermuda Flying School but instead joined up while he was in the UK (See Bermuda Mid Ocean News article 25th March 1972).

A first for Bermuda, part of the construction from scratch of the US Military facilities in Bermuda - mostly US Army and US Army Air Force at St. David's and in St. George's and paid for 100% by American taxpayers. At the same time as simultaneous construction of the US Navy base in Southampton, ships and aircraft of the US Navy began to be based in Bermuda. Losses galore of US military aircraft began to occur in and around Bermuda from then to the end of the war.

1940. Use in Bermuda by the RAF and US Navy of the Brewster Bermuda

The Brewster Bermuda was the name given by the RAF to the Brewster SB2A (below). In the US Navy service, the aircraft was the SB2A "Buccaneer." The Bermuda was not carrier-capable, although it was designed as a dive bomber.

1941. May 6. Catalina, Royal Air Force (RAF) destroyed

Made in the USA in huge numbers. Acquired by the Royal Air Force After being ferried from Bermuda, it was destroyed in a bombing raid at Greenock and sank.

1941. August. Spitfire Bermuda One

Mark IIb P8507 was bought for the Royal Air Force by Bermudians, by public appeal. It shot down five German aircraft before it failed to return on this date. Photo supplied to this author of Bermuda Online in 1986 from Royal Air Force records.

1941. November 27. Kingfisher. 2206. Lost

1941. December 13. Kingfisher. 2208. United States Navy of VS-5D4.

1941. December 20. First land-based aircraft in Bermuda landed at Kindley Field

It was not an American military plane but a British one. A Royal Air Force (RAF) B-24 Liberator landed on December 20, 1941 from Dorval, near Montreal in Canada. Almost immediately thereafter, Kindley Field became a transit stop for frequent shuttle RAF shuttle flights between Bermuda and the important Royal Air Force and Royal Canadian Air Force base established at Dorval.

1942. January. More Bermudian graduates of the Bermuda Flying School left Bermuda for England

After being licensed to fly in on September 11th, 1941, they departed Bermuda in January 1942 aboard the former passenger liner and now armed merchant cruiser " Queen of Bermuda". They included Lyall Mayor, Colyn L. Rees (born Spanish Point, Bermuda, November 25, 1922), Eddie Whitecross and John Pitt. They went to initially to Halifax, Nova Scotia for an overnight stay on their way to England. On departing Halifax, the ship went onto a reef during snow storm outside of Halifax harbour. Eventually, they arrived in England to join the RAF. Some had very interesting stories, with their aviation careers taking them all over the world.

1942. January 28. Kingfisher. 3084. United States Navy

1942. May. USA-based Colonial Airlines, formerly Canadian Colonial, was awarded the Washington - New York - Bermuda route.

1942. Wing Commander E. M. Ware, OBE, DFC, RAF (later, first Director of Civil Aviation in Bermuda) flew a Catalina to Boucherville, Montreal

On board were a number of Bermudians bound for the Royal Canadian Air Force. They included Norman Sumpter, Harold Dale, Richards (first name unknown), Squires (first name unknown), Arthur (Copper) Jenkins, Charles Nunn, Robert Oatway, Fred (Red) Adderley, David Kopec, Herbert (Chummy) Zuill and Norman Jones. It was a 10-hour flight.

1942. February 25. 2 RAF Catalinas. V7109 and V9724. RAF.

1942. June 7. Kingfisher. VS-2D1. United States Navy.

1943. June 22, 1943. Flying Officer John Hartley Watlington, Jr. missing

Of Hamilton, Bermuda, and serving in the RCAF, he was reported missing on operations overseas in the Toronto Globe & Mail on this day and was subsequently reported as officially presumed dead in that same newspaper on 4 April 1944. His name does not appear on the Commonwealth War Graves website, nor have any records been found that indicate that he became a POW or that he evaded capture and returned to the U.K. after his Mustang fighter AG 641 of 400 Squadron RCAF was shot down near Dieppe on 22 June 1943.

1943. July 15, USAF/ex USAAF aircraft crashed at Bermuda, with fatalities

32041 (ex USAAF B-24D 42-40440, VB-105) crashed at sea, in Castle Harbour, at the end of the military base runway, after takeoff Bermuda. 11 Crew killed.

1944. August 20. USN Martin PNB Mariner. 6717 lost, with deaths

Will Mitchell Haire was at the US Naval Operating Base in Bermuda. His plane was one of the nine aircraft of Squadron VP 207 (VP for a long range regular Patrol squadron, compared to VS for a Scouting squadron), crashed 25 miles north of Bermuda. All eight crew members were missing, presumed killed. The squadron had been in Bermuda for only three months, since June. It had replaced VP 201 which had served in Bermuda from September 1943 to June 1944. The rest of Haire's squadron remained in Bermuda until June 1945.

1944. Flight Lieutenants Allan (Smokey) Wingood and Hugh Watlington, Royal Air Force, were decorated

Bermudians, they went to Buckingham Palace in London to receive the Distinguished Flying Cross and Distinguished Flying Medal respectively, for bravery in battle, from King George VI. They were flying Wellington bombers. They were accompanied by Mrs. Peggy Wingood, wife of Allan Wingood, and their baby daughter Katherine.

1945. April 28. Two US Navy blimps arrived at Fort Bell/Kindley Bermuda from the USA, bound for Lagens.

The two lighter-than-air aircraft were moored at the north east end of the field under the supervision of Naval Operating Base Bermuda personnel. Guards were supplied by Kindley during the mooring to keep all curious personnel off the airfield, with a roving patrol established during their stay. The two mooring posts were elected by Post Engineers BBC early in the month when warning of their arrival was received. Because of the approximation of 30 hours made for en route time to Lagens, the crew needed a 48-hour forecast of weather conditions. A 24-hour forecast map, and a running map combining the two,. were drawn up by the Weather Station with winds for the surface, 1,000 feet and 3,000 feet noted; although with the gas load on board it was known that the blimps could not fly over 1,000 feet. The schedule was for 26 hours and 48 minutes in flight time. At 1:30 am on April 29, the craft departed for Lagens, arriving there just 2 hours and 51 minutes behind the set schedule timing.

1945. BOAC began thrice weekly Bermuda-Baltimore service from Darrell's Island, with Boeing 314 flying boats.

1945. July 30, 31. Luftwaffe Junkers JU 290A-4 110196 transited Bermuda

Captured in Munich by the US Army Air Force and re-equipped with new engines and American radios, it flew to Patterson Field in Ohio via Orly, Lajes and Bermuda.

1946. January. Kindley Field Airport, Bermuda, was opened

It was established on that part of the US military base once reserved for and used by Britain's Royal Air Force. The senior RAF officer in Bermuda, during the War, Wing Commander E. M. "Mo" Ware, OBE, DFC, RAF, was loaned to the civil government to oversee the conversion of the RAF's end of the military airfield into a Civil Air Terminal. Pre-fabricated buildings were relocated from Darrell's Island to assemble the first terminal. Ware remained with the local government after leaving the RAF, becoming the Director of Civil Aviation for many years. He was married to Sylvia, who in the 1960s worked with the Visitors Service Bureau at the airport. They have a son living in Bermuda, two daughters, Sylvia, understood to be living in England, and Maureen, a vet in Bermuda. Although no longer maintaining any detachment in Bermuda, the RAF continued to use Island as a trans-Atlantic staging after WW2 While most foreign military aircraft passing through the Island had used the US military end of the airfield, the RAF continued to disperse its aircraft at the former RAF end of the field. Large detachments of tactical aircraft, accompanied by larger refueling, transport, and maritime patrol aircraft, regularly staged at the island on transits between the UK and the garrison at Belize, etc.

1946. January. First commercial flight by any airline to Kindley Field Airport, Bermuda by Pan Am

The Boeing Stratoliner S-307 "Flying Cloud" was built in 1940. She was the first to fly as high as 20,000 feet. Only 10 were built. She carried 5 crew and 33 passengers, later re-configured for 45 passengers at an average speed of 187 mph. After flying routes in Texas, California and Mexico for Pan Am, she was taken over from December 1941 by the US Army Air Force and put to work in South America. After WW2, she was returned to Pan Am which flew it on the New York to Bermuda run for a short time in January 1946 until she was sold. She was moth-balled at Tucson, Arizona, for years. It still survives, despite a crash-landing near Seattle in April 2002. She is now owned by the Smithsonian.

1946. 15th January. Bermuda Air Agreement (Aviation)

Senior officials of Britain's Ministry of Aviation and the United States Civil Aviation began a 27-day conference in Bermuda, to agree on British and American airline routes across the Atlantic and into each country's territories. It was the first of what became later several subsequent aviation agreements to which Bermuda lent her name. The principal American delegate at that Bermuda Conference was Fiorello LaGuardia, the energetic and colorful Mayor of New York, who had been involved in several other important conferences relating to air travel held previously; and had been a guest of the American military base at Fort Bell/Kindley, at the VIP quarters.

1946. February 3. First Pan American Lockheed Constellation Flight to Bermuda, from New York

She was the first civilian Lockheed aircraft to land at Kindley Field. She replaced the Boeing Stratoliner aircraft used earlier.

1946. March. British South American Airways Corporation (BSAAC) commenced services to Bermuda

It was an airline created by World War II veteran pilots in an effort to provide service into the previously untapped South American trade and passenger routes, commenced transatlantic services with a BSAA plane making the first operational flight from London Heathrow Airport to Bermuda and beyond. The airline operated mostly Avro aircraft: Yorks, Lancastrians and Tudors, and flew to Bermuda, the West Indies and the western coast of South America.

1946. May. Colonial (later, Eastern) commenced service to Bermuda

As a direct result of the Bermuda Air Agreement negotiated in early 1946, Colonial Airlines Inc entered Bermuda airspace. It was originally known as Canadian Colonial Airlines until it was bought out by American interests. It was awarded the Washington, DC to Bermuda and New York to Bermuda routes in 1942 but did not fly that early. It flew DC-4 aircraft. Much later, the airline merged with and became part of Eastern Airlines.

1946. July 16. First British South American Airways (BSSA) aircraft visited Bermuda

She came with 8 Bermuda-bound passengers. She was the Lancastrian G-AGWI "Star Land." She landed at Kindley Field as her second stop, after Santa Maria. She was en route to Nassau, Mexico City, Belize, Panama, Jamaica and Trinidad, on her proving flight from London. The Lancastrian aircraft were converted World War II vintage Lancaster bombers.

It was first under the name of British South American Airways (BSAA) instead of Imperial Airways that Bermuda was first serviced by these commercial, regularly-scheduled civilian land-based aircraft.

World War 2 gave a temporary boost to flying boats used by remote islands and hard to get to places, it also was instrumental in their demise. It spurred by leaps and bounds the development of landplanes able to equal or exceed the payload and range of flying boats. It created hundreds of new airfields with long concrete runways. It provided the nucleus for national and international airports. The American military base built during the war years on Bermuda's St. David's and other former Bermuda islands had been planned for post-war civilian aircraft as well and had a runway capable of accepting even the largest military aircraft. The days of the flying boats were nearly over for Bermuda.

1946. September 2. British South American Airways Corporation (BSAA) from Bermuda began commercial flights from land

It was the official start of British South American Airways (BSAA) Corporation fortnightly London - Azores - Bermuda - Jamaica - Caracas service, with Avro "Lancastrian" aircraft. The first flight by the Lancastrian Star Guide, commanded by Captain Gordon Store.

1946. September. TCA survey flight to Bermuda

The Canadian carrier Trans Canada Air Lines (the forerunner of what is now Air Canada) sent a 5-hour survey flight aloft from Montreal to Bermuda to determine the practicality of such a service. On board an early, not pressurized version of the Canadair North Star passenger air liner was a party of Trans Canada senior executives including the airline's President, Mr. Gordon R. McGregor. But it was decided by the board of TCA that the time was not yet ripe to begin a scheduled service to Bermuda. (See 1948). Also see the book It Seems Like Only Yesterday. The First 50 Years of TCA, now Air Canada. Philip Smith. Bermuda is mentioned prominently, starting with the flights of 1946 and 1948.

1947. May 28, BSAA began an in-flight refueled London-Bermuda flight

British South American Airways Corporation (BSAAC) began a series of trial flight refueled non-stop services between London and Bermuda. The Avro Lancaster aircraft G-AHJV was used and was refueled by another BSAA Lancaster based in the Azores. In the first test, the Lancaster aircraft, piloted by Air Vice Marshal D.C. T. Bennett, RAF (retired) of BSAA took off from London Airport and was refueled by a tanker aircraft operating from Santa Maria in the Azores. The 4,000 miles were flown in 20 hours. Operational messages for the trials were dealt with routinely by personnel of Cable & Wireless in Bermuda. Messages to Santa Maria on behalf of the refueling operators Flight Refueling Limited were handed in to the Cable & Wireless counter at London's Heathrow Airport. Similar arrangements were made from the Bermuda end for the return flight. The BSAA trials were carried out once weekly each way for a number of months. In flight communications arrangements were made by Cable & Wireless in London via its facilities at Fayal in the Azores and Bermuda. The test flights paved the way for subsequent flights by direct British Airways flights to and from Bermuda and later Bermuda New York flights with Boeing 747 Jumbo Jets. At one time during its interesting Bermuda history more than 63 years ago now, British Airways operated Bermuda to New York, Bermuda to London and Bermuda to the Caribbean flights.

1947 September 5th. British South American Airways Avro 691 Lancastrian 3 aircraft landing crash

Registration G-AGWK, with 20 people (5 crew and 15 passengers) on a scheduled flight from London had to circle Bermuda's Kindley Field Airport for 90 minutes due to bad weather (thunderstorms). During landing attempt the aircraft struck a radio mast. No fatalities.

1947. October 13/14. Bermuda Sky Queen downed

She was the former Pan Am Boeing 314 Capetown Clipper (NC 18612), renamed Bermuda Sky Queen when she was taken over by non-scheduled carrier American International Airlines and put on the Poole UK) to New York route, via Foynes and Gander Lake. Most of the passengers were British delegates going to the United Nations. After severe and sustained high winds, the aircraft landed in the North Atlantic, near a combined weather and warship. Passengers were transferred to the ship in heavy seas via a line but the aircraft collided with the ship. Still afloat but a hazard to shipping, she was finally sunk by gunfire from the same American warship, the U. S. Coast Guard cutter Bibb.

It was a combination ocean station patrol and search and rescue operation that brought Bibb and her crew international recognition when, while operating on Ocean Station Charlie, the Bermuda Sky Queen was forced to make a landing during a gale with high winds and in rough seas when the flying boat ran low on fuel. The Bibb, under the command of CAPT Paul D. Cronk, had picked up an aircraft on radar heading west at 0232 (GCT) on 14 October 1947. It was the Boeing 314 flying boat Bermuda Sky Queen (NC-18612), on a trans-Atlantic flight from Foynes, Ireland to Gander, Newfoundland with 62 passengers and 7 crew on board. After flying beyond Bibb, the pilot of the flying boat, Captain Charles M. Martin, decided to return to the cutter to attempt an emergency landing because unexpectedly strong head winds had caused the aircraft to consume too much fuel for them to make landfall safely. After establishing communications with Bibb, Martin made a successful landing in the 30-foot seas at 1004 (GCT) near the cutter. After maneuvering close to the Bibb to secure a mooring line, the flying boat lost control and collided with the cutter's hull, damaging the nose of the aircraft as well as both wings and their attached floats.

With the waves cresting at 30 feet and the cutter rolling 30 to 35 degrees, getting the passengers and crew of the Bermuda Sky Queen aboard Bibb proved to be a tremendous challenge. Attempting various methods, including using a pulling boat and various rubber rafts from both the cutter and the flying boat, three passengers of the latter volunteered, only two hours before sunset, to attempt to make it to the cutter using one of the flying boat's small rafts. The Bibb laid down an oil slick downwind of the Bermuda Sky Queen prior to crossing her bow to create a lee for the three men. They then began paddling towards the cutter, but the seas were too great. As they cleared the flying boat, Bibb drifted as close a practicable and threw lines to the men, bringing them safely aboard. This method would prove impossible for the women and children on board, so the cutter launched her motor surfboat that towed a 15-man raft to the Queen.

Using that raft as a bridge between the flying boat and the motor surf boat, the Coast Guardsmen managed to save 28 persons in three trips and get them back to Bibb. On the fourth trip, the surfboat, taking on water after being battered against the hull of Bibb, began to sink. Fortunately Bibb was able to pull all 21 survivors and Coast Guardsmen on board the surfboat and in the raft to safety, leaving 22 on board the Queen. One more attempt was made with a pulling boat that night, but again the rough seas and darkness prevented their success and captains Cronk and Martin agreed to wait until the next morning to save the remaining passengers and crew.

The following morning the seas had abated somewhat and Cronk ordered a rescue attempt with his personal gig. After one successful trip, the gig's engine broke down and the Coast Guardsmen once again launched a pulling boat. The pulling boat successfully rescued the remaining passengers and crew and the captain's gig finally got its engine going again and both boats were then brought back aboard Bibb. Cronk and Martin agreed that it was impossible to tow the Queen to safety and Cronk then ordered her sunk as a hazard to navigation. Obtaining permission to leave the ocean station and return to Boston with all of the souls who had been on board the Queen, the cutter arrived to a hero's welcome. The rescue demonstrated the utility and importance of the ocean station program and historian Robert E. Johnson noted that "The Bermuda Sky Queen incident must rank with the Coast Guard's outstanding rescue feats."

1947 November 13th. Incident of British South American Airways Avro 691 Lancastrian 3 aircraft at Bermuda

Registration G-AGWG. With 16 people on board (4 crew and 12 passengers) experienced an engine fire at 9,000ft shortly after take-off from Bermuda's Kindley Field en route to Santa Maria-Vila do Porto Airport (SMA). This engine was shut down, and the aircraft returned to Bermuda. Premature selection of full flaps down caused the aircraft to undershoot the runway. No fatalities.

1948. January 31. Loss of RMA "Star Tiger" on Bermuda service. Deaths

The British South American Airways civilian aircraft Star Tiger (registration G-AHNP) was lost. It had logged just over 500 flight hours. The plane was flown and commanded by Capt. B. W. McMillan, and copiloted by both Capt. David Colby and C. Ellison, all experienced pilots. The Star Tiger was en route from England to Bermuda, but had a fuel layover in the Azores. At 03:15 hours, Capt. McMillan requested a bearing on Bermuda. The request was routine, and there was no panic or cause for alarm. After receiving the bearings, Capt. McMillan gave an estimated arrival time at 05:00. That was the last contact with the Star Tiger. Bermuda went on the alert after 05:00. The British Civil Air Ministry launched a search and full scale investigation, but no signs of the Star Tiger, or her 29 passengers and crew were ever found. A merchant ship, SS Troubadour, had reported seeing a low flying aircraft with lights blinking about halfway between Bermuda and the entrance to Delaware Bay, which meant that if the aircraft was Star Tiger, then it had gone well off-course from Bermuda. Star Tiger had reported in one of its messages that it was flying at an altitude of 2,000 feet, ostensibly to control a mishap should the cabin lose pressure, but at that altitude there would have been no time to issue a distress call should the aircraft have been forced to ditch at sea. The UK Civil Air Ministry later issued this press release into the incident: "In closing this report it may truly be said that no more baffling problem has ever been presented for investigation. In the complete absence of any reliable evidence as to either the nature or the cause of the accident of Star Tiger the Court has not been able to do more than suggest possibilities, none of which reaches the level even of probability. Into all activities which involve the co-operation of man and machine two elements enter of a very diverse character (sic). There is an incalculable element of the human equation dependent upon imperfectly known factors; and there is the mechanical element subject to quite different laws. A breakdown may occur in either separately or in both in conjunction. Or some external cause may overwhelm both man and machine. What happened in this case will never be known and the fate of Star Tiger must remain an unsolved mystery."

1948. April 26. Cubana began route from Havana to Madrid via Bermuda, Santa Maria and Lisbon.

This Cuban airline's transatlantic route continued for some years, was started, using Douglas DC-4 Skymaster aircraft, one named "Estrella de Oriente."

1948. May 1. Trans Canada Airlines commenced Bermuda service

The Bermuda Government - and travelers throughout Bermuda - welcomed the arrival of yet another airline to fly into and out of Bermuda on a regularly scheduled basis. Air

Canada

, then known as Trans Canada Air Lines, joined British Overseas Airways Corporation, British South American Airways, Pan American World Airlines and Eastern Airlines (formerly Capital) in Bermuda and started regular service from

Canada

, via Bermuda to the West Indies and in reverse. For the tourism chiefs of the Bermuda Government, it was the opportunity they had long sought to market Bermuda 's charms aggressively in

Canada

. The Trans Canada Air Lines service began on a twice-weekly basis, operating Canadair Four North Star aircraft, with one schedule operating to and from Montreal and the other to and from Toronto . Earlier that day, at a ceremony at Montreal , the originating point of the new service, members of the Canadian Government and international aviation representatives met on the tarmac to inspect the 40-seater Canadair North Star aircraft, the first-ever such large passenger aircraft to be built entirely in

Canada

. In the Montreal ceremonies prior to their inaugural departure to Bermuda on the North Star carrying the registration CF-TFK were Dr. E. P. Warner, President of the International Civil Aviation Organization; the Hon. Lionel Chevrier, Canada's Minister of Transport; Mr. R. C. Vaughn, CMG, a Director of Trans Canada Airlines and the President and Chairman of the Canadian National Railroad. Also on the aircraft were the Hon. Ernest Berfrand, Canada's Post Master General; Mr. Gordon R. McGregor, President of Trans Canada Air Lines; Mr. W. F. English, Vice President, Operations, Trans Canada Air Lines; Mr. A. C. McKim, Trans Canada Air Lines' Vice President, Traffic; Mr. W. S. Thompson, Director of Public Relations for Trans Canada Air Lines; and Sir William Hildred, Director-General of IATA. As press representatives on board the plane, which had a flight-time of five hours from Montreal to Bermuda and arrived at 4.20 pm , were well-known personalities of prominent

Canada

's newspapers and radio stations.

On its arrival in Bermuda, the inaugural flight from Montreal was met at the Civil Air Terminal of Kindley Field by the Wor. Leon Fox, Mayor of St. George's and an official party of senior Bermuda Government representatives and other dignitaries. To commemorate the arrival of the distinguished Canadian visitors, the Governor of Bermuda, Admiral Sir Ralph Leatham, welcomed them to Government House at an official reception held in their honour. In those halcyon days of 1948 the airline advertised its one way fare from Montreal to Bermuda at the fixed rate of C$85, with the round-trip at C$153; the one-way fare from Toronto to Bermuda at $90, with the round-trip at C$162. Then there was the "triangle tour", Montreal-Bermuda-Toronto-Ottawa-Montreal fare in either direction, with the tour originating and terminating at any point on the triangle, at C$175 with a time limit of one year. The round-trip excursion fares were introduced to promote winter travel. Also in its published tariff, the airline noted that tickets sold in Canada were subject to a 15 percent tax and that all outward bound passengers from Bermuda were subject to a Bermuda departure tax of twelve shillings and sixpence.

Also see the book It Seems Like Only Yesterday. The First 50 Years of TCA, now Air Canada. Philip Smith. Bermuda is mentioned prominently, starting with the flights of 1946 and 1948.

1948. Bermuda Air Tours Ltd. established

Formed by Bermudian Flight Lieutenant Hugh Watlington, DFM, RAF, who during World War 2, flew bombers. It gave air tours for $6 a person.

1948. December 3. New BSSA route to Bermuda

BSAA, a subsidiary of the British Overseas Airways Corporation, introduced yet another ambitious service.

On the westbound route, the airline begin a new scheduled service from London, with stops at Keflavik in Iceland, Gander in Newfoundland, Bermuda, Jamaica, Barranquilla, Lima, Santiago and Buenos Aires.

1949. January 17. Loss over Atlantic of "Star Ariel" of BSSA. Deaths

Almost a year to the day after the loss of Star Tiger, the airliner Star Ariel of British South American Airways was lost. She departed Bermuda for Kingston, Jamaica on this date carrying seven crewmembers and 13 passengers. Shortly after take-off, her pilot, Capt. J. C. McPhee, radioed in the following report: "I DEPARTED FROM KINDLEY FIELD AT 8:41 A.M. HOURS. MY ESTIMATED TIME OF ARRIVAL AT KINGSTON 2:10 P.M. HOURS. I AM FLYING IN GOOD VISIBILITY AT 18,000 FT. I FLEW OVER 150 MILES SOUTH OF KINDLEY FIELD AT 9:32 HRS. MY ETA AT 30° N IS 9:37 HRS. WILL YOU ACCEPT CONTROL?" And then later Capt. McPhee reported: "I WAS OVER 30° N AT 9:37 I AM CHANGING FREQUENCY TO MRX." Those were the last transmissions from the Star Ariel, and she was never heard from again. More than 70 aircraft and many ships were involved in a search between 100 and 500 miles south of Bermuda, search vessels including the aircraft carriers USS Kearsage and USS Leyte, and the battleship USS Missouri, involving upwards of 13,000 men. No sign of debris, oil slicks, or wreckage were ever found. Both this incident and the one a year earlier later prompted the use of the Tudor IV aircraft to be discontinued.

1949. August 17. Pan Am began Boeing Stratocruiser service to Bermuda, from New York.

1949. Kindley AFB Bermuda and Flight D, 2152nd Rescue Unit USAF

After arriving at KAFB, it became Flight D, 6th Rescue Unit then Flight D, First Rescue Squadron. The unit flew converted SB-17 bombers which carried, slung under their bellies, lifeboats dripped to the ocean by parachute.

1949. Iberia Airlines started intermittent services to Bermuda

From Spain, Iberia periodically used Bermuda as a fuel stop when wind conditions prevented aircraft from Venezuela, after a passenger stop in San Juan, Puerto Rico, from refueling at Santa Maria in the Azores, en route to Madrid. Iberia was the first airline to establish an air link between Europe and South America after World War II.

1949-50. BOAC's Avro York aircraft made regular visits

Weekly freight services were flown from London and Nassau-based Yorks flew passengers via Bermuda to destinations that included Miami, Santiago and Havana.

1950. March. USAF Globemaster. Loss

1950. March. BOAC Constellations began a once-weekly London to Azores to Bermuda to Nassau to Kingston to Santiago passenger service.

1950. July 1. The US Naval Operating Base in Bermuda was decommissioned

1950. April. Rescue of Bermudians and US Marines by SB-17.

A Bermudian, his two sons and eight US Marines were rescued after two days adrift 60 miles off Bermuda in a disabled motor launch. The party was sighted by an SB-17 aircraft from the Kindley AFB Bermuda and eventually picked up by the Royal Naval vessel HMS Bigbury Bay.

1951. Qantas and Aerolineas Argentineas have intermittent flights to Bermuda

1951. November 11. Catalina. 46486. US Navy. Deaths

July 21, 1952, USAF from Bermuda aids a Swedish freighter

From 1951 to 1954 Hal Susskind, at email hasusskind@hotmail.com) was a USAF Major based at Kindley AFB Bermuda with the Air Rescue flight. He participated in a life saving mission. He was the navigator on an SB-29 which flew 1000 miles out of Bermuda and acted as the Bombardier to make a night drop of Blood Plasma on the deck of a Swedish freighter to save a seaman's life. Also aboard were Tom McGrain (navigator) and George Welch (commander).

1952. December 6. Cubana Airlines. Loss and deaths

Cubana's "Estrella de Oriente" DC-4 registration CU-T397 that first flew in 1944 suffered an accident over Bermuda on its way from there to Havana-Rancho Boyeros Airport (HAV/MUHA), Havana, Cuba, only 3 miles after leaving Bermuda. All 32 passengers died, including Capt. René Ayala, who commanded the aircraft and all other of the 5 crew members. A dramatic rescue operation was mounted from Kindley AFB Bermuda to save the passengers of a stricken Cubana Airlines aircraft which took off from the Civil Air Terminal but crashed into the waters of Castle Harbour at the end of the runway at about 4.30 pm. Bermuda had been well prepared for such a rescue operation, due to the previous establishment at Kindley Air Force Base of crash boats imported and operated especially for such an emergency. Two US servicemen on board the 35-foot crash boat that went out to rescue the aircraft's passengers heard faint screams coming from the dark, oil-slicked water. They leapt overboard without lifelines or preservers, in an attempt to rescue the passengers. But despite their heroic efforts, and those of others, in rescuing four people, the balance of the passengers and crew of the stricken aircraft - some thirty seven people in all - perished from wounds incurred in the crash.

1953-1964. The USAF's "Hurricane Hunters" weather reconnaissance squadron made history in Bermuda

It was based there from 1953 to 1964 when replaced by satellites. It is now a reserve unit and members are called to active duty only when we are threatened by the brewing of a hurricane. During that time the unit was designated at different times as the 53rd or the 59th Weather Recon. Squadron. There were a number of TV news reports emanating from Kindley, including a major news event when newscaster Edward R. Murrow flew an actual hurricane mission with the unit.

1953. September. US Navy R6D crash-landed at Kindley AFB Bermuda. Loss.

Two KAFB crash firefighters earned the US Soldier's Medal when they entered the burning aircraft. The men entered the blazing wreck without protective clothing to make sure that all passengers had been evacuated - which they had. But the aircraft was a total loss.

It was during the "First Summit Conference" in December 1953. Prime Minister Winston Churchill of Britain was reviewing, in Hamilton, the "Big 3" Armed Forces security guard. As he did so, two Bermuda Air Tours Luscome 8a aircraft, registration numbers VR-BAE and VR-BAH collided in Hamilton Harbour and crashed into the sea. VR-BAE was flown by 23 year-old Herbert Buswell, flying at the time in a civilian capacity but in military life one of the aircrew of VP-49 of the US Navy Base in Southampton Parish and a member of its US Navy Flying Club then based at that navy base (one of the aircraft belonging to the club was VP-BAS). Buswell was seriously injured. VR-BAH was piloted by 18 year-old Bermudian Philip Masters. It was badly damaged, but Masters managed a safe landing before the aircraft sank and managed to get ashore. Buswell's life was saved by a Bermudian, Mr. Stanley Ross Doe, who for his bravery was awarded the (British) George Medal. VR-BAH was salvaged and repaired later.

1954. April. BOAC dropped its route from London to South America via Bermuda

1954. October 31. Swiss Air DC-6 HB-IBU visited Bermuda

She was the "Canton de Vaud," on a long-range flight from Zurich to Shannon, Gander, New York, Niagara Falls, Chicago, San Francisco, Mexico City, Havana, Bermuda and Santa Maria, then Zurich.

1955. September. Iberian Airlines emergency

A Spanish airliner, an Iberian Airlines' Super Constellation, en route to Madrid from Venezuela via Puerto Rico, with 25 passengers and 10 crew on board, made an emergency gear-up landing at Kindley. The aircraft's captain and co-pilot were unable to lower and lock the landing gear and had put the plane into a four-hour circle over Bermuda, to use up fuel, then set down on the runway with crash-firemen from Kindley Air Force Base in close attendance. Sparks flew on impact but the firemen immediately blanketed the sliding aircraft with foam, preventing any fire. There was little damage to the aircraft superstructure and no injuries, thanks to the emergency procedures used by the Americans at Kindley AFB Bermuda.

1955. Strategic Air Command at Kindley AFB Bermuda

It deployed KC-97's to Kindley for air refueling of B-47's (USA based) over the Atlantic.

1955. November 12. Vickers Viscount of BWIA arrived on jet-assisted trail flight

1956. January 1. BWIA commenced flights to Bermuda from Trinidad via Barbados

1956. O3 October. A Douglas C-124 53-0033 USAF aircraft that departed Kindley Air Force Base Bermuda crashed with all fatalities near Charleston, South Carolina.

1956. November 9. Martin "Marlin" P5M 127705, VP-49, US Navy. No survivors from 11-man crew

The New York Times reported this missing US Navy patrol plane with ten men aboard was hunted by Navy and Coast Guard units in waters north of Bermuda. The plane was believed to be the one that a Liberian freighter had spotted in flames on the previous Friday night. An SOS message from the freighter at 8:51pm Friday reported "a plane overhead in flames" at a point about 400 miles east southeast of New York. The freighter also reported that an explosion had been heard and felt strongly aboard the vessel, the sighting about four miles away of what appeared to be a life raft with a light on it, and that the raft had become obscured by rain, heavy seas and darkness. Weather conditions at the time of the SOS were scattered clouds at 1,500 feet, showers with good visibility and moderate seas.
The joint sea-air search was coordinated by the Navy's Eastern Sear Frontier command in New York State. The Commandant was Vice Admiral Frederick W. McMahon. Other Naval authorities in Norfolk, Va., and Bermuda, home base of the plane, presumed it was. There were no other reports of a missing civilian or military aircraft. The missing plane was the captioned twin-engine flying boat carrying seven enlisted men and three officers. The Navy said the craft radioed its last position report at 8:30 pm Friday. The United States Naval Station in Bermuda, where the plane was assigned to Navy Squadron VP 49, reported the craft's last position report as 350 miles north of Bermuda. The plane had left Bermuda on a patrol flight with enough fuel to keep it aloft until 6:30 am next day. The search was begun by three Coast Guard aircraft and a cutter, the Chincoteague. Also joining the search were two Navy destroyers and six Navy planes. These were four other P5M's stationed in Bermuda and two P2V Neptune patrol bombers from Maryland.

The Navy in Washington announced that missing from the aircraft were Petty Officer 3/C Wendell Frederick Beverly, son of Francis Louis Beverly, Ballou Lane, Williamaton, MA; Petty Officer 3/c Billy Gene Comer, son of James Vester Comer, Blossburg, AL; Petty Officer 3/C Jesse William Grable, son of Byford Otto Grable, 1305 Dover, Centralia, IL; Petty Officer 3/C Richard Woods Montgomery, son of Thaddeus Lemart Montgomery, 118 Colwyn Lane, Cynwyd, PA; Lieut. (jg) Charles William Patterson, husband of Billie Lawson Patterson, Naval Station, Bermuda; Petty Officer 2/C Lyle Freeman Quimby, husband of Karin Mae Quimby, Beachcrest Cottage, Rural Hill Paget, Bermuda, and son of Mrs. Earl Quimby, 3036 Colfax, North Minneapolis, MN; Leut.(jg) Cyrus Eugene Reid Jr., son of Mary Marshall Reid, Edgewater Drive, Dallas 5, TX; Airman Bobbie Lee Sanders, son of Mary Frye, 312 West 9th Street, Houston, TX; Comdr. John Milton Sweeney, husband of Mary Mathewson Sweeney, Mimosa Cottage, Warwick, Bermuda; Petty Officer 1/C Robert Wayne Taylor, husband of Shirley Marea Taylor, Elys Harbor Apartments, Somerset, Bermuda, and son of Mrs. Phillip Yedlik, Route 2, West Liberty, OH.

1957-58. Royal Dutch Airlines (KLM) services to Bermuda?

On April 29, 2010 Ronald Aker at email raker@quicknet.nl who works for KLM and also has a private KLM historial archive, states there is proof of KLM flight to Bermuda in the 1950s, technical (fuel) stops at first but commercial landings during 1957 and 1958. Mr. Aker states Bermuda was a stop on the Mid and South America services, flying mostly Super Constellations. He's asked for any relevant information on KLM operations in Bermuda at that time and any further details on when scheduled KLM services to Bermuda started and ended.

1958. June 2. Eagle Airways (Bermuda) Ltd flights began from Bermuda to New York

This British independent airline managed by Harold Bamburg was registered in early 1958. Its first aircraft was the Vickers Viscount 805 VR-BAX. Named "Enterprise," she carried the title "The Bermuda Airline" on her port side. By the end of 1959, she had carried nearly 10,000 passengers on the New York run.

1958. October 28. BOAC resurrected its route from London to South America via Bermuda

BOAC resumed services to South America with twice-weekly London-Bermuda-Trinidad-Barbados-Caracas service operated by Bristol Britannia 312 aircraft including G-AOVL.

1959. February. Eagle Airways (Bermuda) Ltd expanded its flights to Washington/Baltimore, Montreal and Nassau (later, Miami as well).

1959. March. USAF F-100 fighter aircraft lost off Bermuda

The pilot ejected from his plane after his engines flamed out. But he landed in the Atlantic, only 40 miles from Bermuda. A helicopter from Kindley AFB Bermuda scooped him out.

1959. Eagle Airways (Bermuda) Ltd operated DC-6s from London to Bermuda via New York.

1959. May. Kindley AFB Bermuda, emergency air sea rescue procedures, crash boats, fire fighting drills, averted tragedy.

Two USAF F-101 fighter pilots were in a mid-air collision 840 miles east of Bermuda. They owed their lives to an alert weather reconnaissance aircraft crew at Kindley. It heard their distress signals from many miles away and located them. Stu Murphy and Bill Swanson were the weather reconnaissance pilots who located the downed F 101 pilots and guided the US Coast Guard cutter Medoza - based in Bermuda at the time - to their rescue.

1960. May 17. P5M Marlin 135465. VP-54, USN. Returned to Bermuda with fire in generator.

Totally burnt out on landing. All 17 crew survived including Lt. D. J. Florko, USN.

1960. BOAC began a low-fare Skycoach service London-Bermuda-Nassau.

1960. December 12. An incoming airship requested help, supposedly 30 to 50 miles north of Bermuda and low on fuel.

A Kindley AFB-based weather reconnaissance aircraft on a mission was diverted to its aid, found it actually 90 miles north of Bermuda and established a true position. A rescue squadron SC-54 from Kindley relieved the WB-50 and escorted the airship to Bermuda. But it took 4 hours to make the 90-mile journey for the airship was fighting strong southerly winds and once it had to deviate to the west to avoid a waterspout. It arrived at 2 am December 13, took on 160 gallons of fuel winched up to it from the ground, but had to wait until 7:30 pm for surface winds to drop enough to let it land, with no damage.

1961. February and June. Last two airship missions into Kindley AFB Bermuda.

1961. A U.S. B-29 bomber took off from Bermuda but went down due to a fuel problem.

Fortunately the crew bailed out before she hit the water, and all lives were spared. Now known as the Airplane wreck, she lies in only 25 to 30 feet of water close to the wreck of the ship North Carolina. Divers can still recognize many of the plane's parts such as her propeller, wings and parts of her fuselage.

1961. April. Eagle Airways (Bermuda) Ltd purchased VR-BBL

1961. September 22. Marlin P5M S-2 of Patrol Squadron VP 45, US Navy, crash-landed in ocean 178 miles north of Bermuda.

Crewmembers Robert Carroll, Cameron Cooper, Charles Dunaway, Lieutenant Commander Albert J. Tait, Erwin Thompson, Charles Turner and David Wood, all Bermuda-based, perished. There were 3 survivors, rescued by Captain Arthur Knight aboard the U.S. Merchant cargo ship USS African Pilot.

1962. A Royal Air Force Comet 4 of Transport Command landed in Bermuda, at Kindley Air Force Base.

It arrived from Royal Air Force Lyneham, Wiltshire, UK. One of the passengers was a Bermudian officer cadet in the British Army.

1962. An RB-47 reconnaissance aircraft from the United States Air Force crashed on the Astor Estate property at Ferry Reach in St. George's Parish after taking off from the nearby Kindley Air Force Base and damaged some of the outbuildings. All four crew members perished.

1963. Modern, high-speed, land-based P-3 Orion aircraft replaced the seaplanes at the US Naval Operating Station, Bermuda.

1963. BOAC became the first airline to offer standby fares on international air services - available on routes from the UK to Bermuda and the Caribbean.

1963. 28 August. A United States Air Force Boeing KC-135A-BN Stratotanker that first flew in 1962 crashed into the North Atlantic ocean 300 miles west of Bermuda, after refueling B-47s. Mid-air collision with KC-135A 61-0319. All 6 crew died.

1963. November. The US Coast Guard detachment in Bermuda transferred from the U.S. Naval Operating Station to Kindley, Bermuda, because greater range could be gotten from its HU-16 Albatross aircraft by land takeoffs rather than water takeoffs.

1964. June 29. Two USAF aircraft, an HC-97 and a C-54 were flying near Bermuda. The HC-97 was assigned to Kindley Air Force Base in Bermuda and the crew included Technical Sergeant (E-6) Lowell (Micky) W. Belter, who was assigned around January 1964, with his family, to the 55th Air Rescue Squadron based at KAFB. He was a radio operator. His aircraft was assigned to NASA to train for the recovery of Gemini spacecraft as the last few Mercury flights had overshot the aircraft carriers by about 90 miles, and NASA was considering reassigning that mission to the US Air Force from the US Navy. The aircraft flew in formation over Castle Harbour and then moved about two miles south of Castle Island. One plane had parachutists to practice jumping into the sea, while the other aircraft was taking pictures. They were flying about 1,000 feet above sea level. The first jumpers left the plane, and the C-54 banked to offset the lost weight. The HC-97, with more powerful engines, did not bank, and the two aircraft collided. This created such a huge fireball that it was seen by many people on the beaches along Tucker's Town and John Smith's Bay. There were 12 men aboard each plane, for a total of 24. 19 of those personnel were killed, and the five who survived where parachutists who had either just jumped or were about to. Rescue craft were only able to recover nine bodies (not including Mickey Belter). Astronaut Scott Carpenter, who was over at the Navy base working on SeaLab, attempted to recover remains, but the two mile depth prevented these efforts. About two weeks later, the family of the late Mickey Belter left Bermuda on a USAF transport, to return to the USA. The next year, the Gemini program began, and was able to accurately land almost next to the aircraft carriers. Therefore, the USAF never implemented the mission of recovering Gemini spacecraft.

1965. July 27. US Navy aircraft Orion P-3A 45- LO 151380, which first flew in 1964, crashed at the US Naval Air Station Bermuda during landing. It collided with the ground during touch-and-go training. Reportedly the wrong fuel cut-off switch was activated. All four crew members died crew members died. The aircraft was written off.

1966. Qantas, the Australian airline, opened another around-the-world route. This was named the Fiesta route and was from Sydney to London via Tahiti, Mexico City, and Bermuda.

1966/67. A Russian Aeroflot Tupolev Tu-114 Rossiya aircraft diverted to Bermuda (as Cindy Olden (nee Farnsworth) writes: "Much to the consternation of the folks at Kindley USAF base, Bermuda next to us) all the passengers and crew were put up overnight at the St. George Hotel. To the hotel staff's astonishment when they went to do the rooms the next morning, every man had made his bed! When the enormous aircraft (4 engine propeller job bigger than anything any of us had seen) arrived it was before the 747 - the Pan Am maintenance men had to quickly knock up some wooden steps to fit on top of the usual aircraft steps so the passengers could get out! Next day, Pan Am airport staff had a tour of "The People's aeroplane" - it was astonishing. First class compartments were like those on the Orient Express! The crew and Pan Am staff at the airport (of which I was one) exchanged gifts - the Russian chocolates were the best the Pan Am staff and I had ever tasted, before or since."

Russian Tu 114

Tu-114

It first entered service on October 1961. Most of the design work was done by a team of German scientists captured by the Russians in and after WW2. It was the most powerful turboprop ever built. It converted its shaft power into thrust through gigantic four-bladed counter-rotating propellers mounted in pairs on each engine. The main cabin could accommodate 120 to 220 passengers. The cabin was divided into several different sections. First of these was a forward cabin seating 42 passengers.. Next came a dining compartment with tables and seating for 48 and a galley compartment with elevators to bring food up from the kitchen on the lower deck. Further aft was a small compartment seating two of the five cabin crew and two small compartments providing additional seating or sleeping berths. Finally came the main cabin with accommodation for 54 passengers seated three abreast plus a compartment of washrooms, etc. The enormous plane was used on long-range domestic and international routes. Among the cities served by the Tu-114 were Delhi, Havana, Montreal, Paris, and Copenhagen. The Bermuda arrival probably came from or was bound for Montreal or Havana.

1967. An Airline Operators' Committee - two representatives from each airline in Bermuda - was formed and met regularly with Bermuda's Dept. of Civil Aviation and Wing Commander Ware's (then the Director of Civil Aviation) deputy, Geoff Osborne, in attempts to iron out problems before they arose and make recommendations for better passenger handling and facilities.

1969. March 14. North East Airlines - now Delta Air Lines -began service to Bermuda. Initially from Boston, flying Boeing 727s, more recently from Atlanta as well. For a while (certainly in 1994 but no longer) it had a direct flight between Bermuda and Hartford, Connecticut.

1970s on

1970s. Qantas flew into Bermuda to London. For a fairly short period.

1971. BOAC began using Boeing 747s on the London to New York and Bermuda operation.

1975. June. Wing Commander E. M. Ware's old Luscombe 8a Silvaire 1946 photographed in Bermuda

Luscombe VR-BAK in Bermuda

From the Don A Luscombe factory of USA, 1946. Two were in Bermuda, this one was owned by the late Wing Commander E. M. Ware, OBE. DFC. (see entry for January 1, 1946), the other by Colin Plant, a Bermuda resident. For many years, Ware's damaged plane was parked at the edge of the runway, across the fence from Kindley Field Road. This photo was taken in June 1975 when it was both in operable condition and located next to a bridge near the airport. Some time later, it disappeared. (See June 2008). It is not true that Ware prevented local pilots - who would easily have qualified in any other jurisdiction - from becoming local private pilots with their own working aircraft and giving flying lessons in Bermuda. The real facts are that the problem which existed at the time was one of air security. It was the height of the cold war and was entirely in the hands of the US Air Force later, Navy (concerned not with Bermuda but with the defence of their Bermuda bases) and to some degree the Bermuda Government. The USAF then the USN, both of which had total control over the airspace over Bermuda, declined to let civilian aircraft - other than US and international passenger aircraft - fly over the island - and they had absolute control, as Bermuda technically sublet the civilian air terminal and runway back from the US military operating the airport at the time. Ware's aircraft had been the only one allowed by the US military in Bermuda to photograph and draw up plans for the airport and to keep on flying, as long as the plane was on floats, and only at certain heights under certain conditions. No one in the BDA government of the day, or the US military in Bermuda or the US Consulate supported the concept of local pilots, it was a huge big NO for the reasons given earlier and Ware, responsible for aircraft licensing, was obliged to enforce the decision.

1975. September 8. American Airlines began service to Bermuda. With daily non-stop service between Bermuda and New York (JFK International). It was when Pan American World Airways (which began flights to Bermuda in 1936 but no longer exists) and American Airlines agreed to orchestrate an airline route swap, whereby American would service Bermuda and certain Caribbean destinations (but not necessarily to and from each other) and Pan Am would service Hawaii and certain Pacific destinations (as Pan Am once did much earlier).

1977. July 23. Bermuda II was a Bilateral Air Transport Agreement between the governments of the United Kingdom and the United States signed as a renegotiation of the original 1946 Bermuda agreement.

1981. Last flight of a flying boat to Bermuda. It was en route to Europe. A passenger was Bermudian Flight Lieutenant Hugh Watlington, DFM, RAF, who during World War 2, flew bombers and in 1948 formed Bermuda Air Tours Ltd.

1986. January. A British Airways Concorde flew from London to Bermuda for the first time, after having been in service since 1976. The flight took just 53 minutes to cover the same distance the Cavalier flying boat did in 1936 for 20 hours.

1989. June 1. US Airways began service to Bermuda. When still known as Allegheny, flying from Baltimore to Bermuda and Philadelphia. It no longer offers Baltimore from Bermuda, Washington DC instead.

1990. Eastern Airlines stopped service to Bermuda. It established a 43-year record for non-stop longevity of service that only Air Canada was able to match - and beat - in 1997.

1991. Bermuda Helicopters Ltd began operating in Bermuda. The brain-child of Bermudian Mike Smatt, it provided a unique service to Bermuda, flying tourists and business visitors around the island in a thrilling opportunity for aerial tours and aerial photography, giving views of and over Bermuda of the type never previously available before. The very first series of flights were with a helicopter leased for two months from Pegasus Helicopters, in Canada.

Bermuda Helicopter's Mike Smatt and Bruce Webb

1992. Bermuda Helicopters Ltd followed the same procedure as in 1991....leased the helicopter, flew it down the coast from Nova Scotia to Port Elizabeth, New Jersey where it was shipped to Bermuda.

1993. Bermuda Helicopters Ltd leased a helicopter from America for six months.

1992. British Airways introduced dedicated service London-Bermuda-London.

1994. Bermuda Helicopters Ltd soars aloft with its own helicopter. As Mike Smatt writes: "Fred Littlejohn encouraged me to purchase a helicopter which would be based in Bermuda permanently. Fred and I jointly owned the first helicopter which was based in Bermuda. From that time, Bermuda had a helicopter which was available twelve months a year. We called it "Spirit of Bermuda." Flight operations included aerial tours, aerial photography and law enforcement."

Bermuda Helicopters with Herman, Mike and Chris

1995. The Bermuda II air agreement was revised yet again. Although Bermuda II was much less restrictive than the original Bermuda agreement it replaced, it was still widely regarded as a highly restrictive agreement that contrasts with the principle of "Open skies" against the background of continuing liberalisation of the legal framework governing the air transport industry in various parts of the world. Broadly speaking, only a combined four airlines from the US and UK are allowed to operate flights between London Heathrow and the US. The two British carriers are currently British Airways and Virgin Atlantic. The American carriers were American Airlines and United Airlines. The US also approved Continental to fly to London Heathrow but the British do not recognize this route authority and, consequently, this service is not in operation. However, the British have not obstructed Continental's codeshare agreement with Virgin Atlantic, which places Continental flight numbers in addition to its own on some Heathrow flights. Air India, El Al, Iran Air and Kuwait Airways were permitted to continue exercising their so-called "fifth freedom" traffic rights from Heathrow to JFK, which they had already enjoyed under the original Bermuda agreement. (Both El Al and Iran Air no longer exercise these rights. The former has decided that it makes better economic sense for it to fly non-stop between Tel Aviv and New York. The latter's US traffic rights were withdrawn in the aftermath of the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis.) Similarly, Air New Zealand was allowed to continue using its fifth freedom rights between London and Los Angeles.

1998. British Airways began using Boeing 777s in flights from London to Bermuda and return. The BA schedule was increased to four flights a week from April.

1998. Bermuda Helicopters Ltd ceased operating. As Mike Smatt writes: "The decision was made to sell the helicopter as we were unable to secure contracts over the winter months. Needless to say, it was a very sad moment for us after having carried over 6,000 tourists and provided an aerial platform for a tremendous amount of aerial photography for the Department of Tourism. I have personally felt that the aircraft could have been used far more Coastguard work, for Law Enforcement, etc. but that decision would have to have been made by the Government of Bermuda. In any case, Fred and I were extremely pleased at having conducted over 5,000 flights in and around Bermuda during our tenure here without incident or accident as well as having provided both the local and tourist community with an absolutely beautiful perspective of Bermuda. It was extremely hard work but well worth it."

Bermuda Helicopters and Mike Smatt

Mike Smatt and his Bermuda helicopter. A truly wonderful service to visitors and international business ended. A truly unique piece of aerial Bermudiana stopped. Seeing Bermuda this way by air was the experience of a lifetime. It has never been repeated to date. All three Bermuda Helicopters Ltd photos shown above copyright of and kindly loaned by Mike Smatt

2006. October. Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA), Bermuda formed Vector Limited. Following an idea hatched in 2004, 16 Bermuda-based pilots formed and activated Vector Ltd in 2006 to lease US plane Cessna N2148R - see photo below - for some months (the arrangement ceased in 2007). All 16 are members of AOPA. They had hoped to be able to use in Bermuda a light airplane retrofitted with a new technology diesel engine that burns jet fuel or diesel, and uses only half the fuel of the Avgas engines. The aircraft arrived in October 2006. Vector’s 2003 model Cessna 172 - pictured here - was a German-made, US-registered Thielert Centurion 1.7, 125 HP, jet A-1burning, compression ignition engine. It arrived from Epic Aviation, New Smyrna Beach, Florida, having flown non-stop on standard tanks from Elizabeth City, North Carolina. Flight time was approximately 5 hours. The Thielert offered FADEC (full authority digital engine control) computer diagnostics, a three-bladed constant speed propeller, and a turbocharger with intercooler. Best of all, it uses locally available jet fuel. Bermuda was - and still is - one of the very few places in the developed world and perhaps the only place referring to itself as a major international business center where Avgas is not available and tourists have never had a chance to see Bermuda by air from a local perspective using any any light aircraft requiring Avgas. In contrast, airports throughout the Caribbean (for example, Bahamas, St. Lucia, Antigua, Grenada, Jamaica, etc) have allowed this and have the facilities to provide the fuel, some for over 40 years. This new technology aircraft finally offers qualified Bermudians and other non-military persons with commercial or private flying licenses a chance to fly locally and to take pictures of Bermuda from the air. It is the first local light general aviation flying in Bermuda for over 50 years. (The US Navy and before it the USAF at Kindley USAF Bermuda (also Royal Navy base and Canadian Forces Station staff also in Bermuda then were allowed to use it too) used to have a flying club until the US bases were closed in Bermuda in 1995 but until October 2006, following a policy initiated by the Bermuda Government, locals were not allowed to fly in Bermuda).

AOPA worked closely with FAA to ease such restrictions on all general aviation and because the FAA did so, Bermuda had to do the same. This waiver was another incremental step in restoring general aviation access to the National Airspace System. This latest waiver also allows aircraft registered in Bermuda, Cayman Islands, and British Virgin Islands, along with Canadian, Mexican, and Bahamian-registered aircraft, to operate in the USA in the same way as and with no more restrictions than USA-registered aircraft.

2007. British Airways began daily summer service to Bermuda from London's Gatwick Airport and return. Winter service included 5 flights per week.

2008. March 30. Bermuda-registered aircraft crashes in UK. The Cessna Citation I crash near Biggin Hill aerodrome south east of London, was attempting to turn onto final approach having suffered engine problems. It came down on the edge of a residential area, hitting a house, but no-one on the ground was killed. The aircraft was VP-BGE, Bermuda-registered, that entered service in 1975, according to Flight's ACAS database. Owned by the UK division of US fixed-base operator Ross Aviation, the aircraft was powered by a pair of Pratt & Whitney JT15D-1 engines, and has notched up a total of 5,780h and 5,242 flight cycles. Both pilots and all three passengers died in the accident, which occurred shortly after take-off from runway 21 bound for Pau, France. The impact point was about 3.7km (2nm) north east of the threshold of Biggin Hill's runway 21, close to the extended centreline. Just after take-off the crew put out an emergency call to Biggin Hill reporting engine trouble, citing severe engine vibration. The aircraft hit a house in the village of Farnborough, Kent, [not the town associated with the international air show], but the residents were away.

2008. June. Wing Commander E. M. Ware's old Luscombe 8a Silvaire(1946) in pieces in a Bermuda garden

Remains of Luscombe VR-BAK in a Bermuda garden

(See June 1975). Some time later, it disappeared and in June 2007 as this photo reveals, it apparently re-surfaced in a number of rusty bits bill and small, scattered over the grounds of Palmetto House, Devonshire, a Bermuda National Trust property leased by Ware until his death. Photo kindly sent by Tom Singfield, Aviation Historian, Horsham, UK, at email tom@singfield.freeserve.co.uk. On August 7, 2009 the Luscombe airplane parts including those pictured above were turned over to BAS-Serco in June 2009. BAS-Serco is contracted by the Bermuda Government to provide air traffic control, ground electronics, airport maintenance services and the Bermuda Weather Service. It intends to fund the restoration of the Luscombe aided by volunteer assistance from its team of employees at the L. F. Wade International Airport, Bermuda.

Luscombe VR-BAK in Bermuda

Wing Commander E. M. Ware's old Luscombe 8a Silvaire of 1946 photographed in Bermuda in 1975 when it was still operable

Luscombe wreck moved 2010. February 1. Volunteers were requested to help restore this gem of Bermudian aviation history (see photo immediately above) to its former glory. BAS-Serco last week began the restoration of the wreck (see right photo). a former seaplane owned by late Wing Commander E M 'Mo' Ware, OBE DFC. The abandoned aircraft was discovered by the National Trust during the renovation of Palmetto House, Devonshire Wing Commander Ware's home until his death in 2003. The Second World War senior RAF officer was seconded to the civilian government in 1945 where he oversaw the conversion of the military airfield into a Civil Air Terminal. He was then appointed Bermuda's first Director of Civil Aviation, and from 1951 to 1978 opened up the Island to modern air travel. Wing Commander Ware's 1946 Luscombe 8a Silvaire was originally imported by Hugh Watlington in 1952.

He bought the plane together with Jim Babineau and Colin Plant, from Bermuda Air Tours in 1954. At one time the Luscombe was fitted with a wheeled undercarriage from a Tiger Moth, for flights at Kindley Field. Then in 1956 it was filmed for the movie 'Bermuda Affair' According to records the seaplane last took to the air more than 30 years ago but even in September 1987 it was still flyable.

Unfortunately, that month Hurricane Emily broke its back when a falling casuarina tree hit VR-BAK at its Kindley Field base, 2ft ahead of its fin. Wing Commander Ware and his son David then took the wings to Palmetto House, but repairs were never completed.

Luscombe wreck workshop for restoration The dismantled plane lay scattered at the historic Bermudian property until last year, when it was discovered by the Bermuda National Trust during renovations. Trust Director Jennifer Gray then gave the parts to BAS-Serco, which provides Bermuda's aviation services in the form of air traffic control, ground electronics, and airport maintenance services. Although the company aims to fund its restoration project through staff volunteers, CEO Frank Williams was eager to hear from anyone in the community who would like to assist.

He would also welcome any pictures or stories about now-vintage Luscombe aircraft in Bermuda. "It's going to be expensive to restore the plane to its non-flying condition and will take us some months, as a lot of the work is being done by volunteers," said Mr. Williams. "If you are interested, please get in touch. The more the merrier. We are hoping to eventually display the plane at either the airport or the Bermuda Maritime Museum." To contact Mr. Williams call 332 4147 or e-mail him at: fwilliams@bas-serco.bm.

Thus was the scene set for Imperial Airways (now British Airways) and Pan American World Airways to establish their flying boat services between New York and Bermuda. Bill Forbes and his team readied their radio direction finding equipment, working through the night. On Darrell's Island, a team worked to re-assemble and then check the Imperial Airways' Short Empire C-class RMA Cavalier flying-boat G-ADUU, shipped in parts from England, under the supervision of Imperial's Chief Engineer Len Turnhill, working with Imperial Airways and Bermudian staff.
The next day, the flying boat started its engines, cruised on its pontoons through Hamilton Harbor and soared up into mid Atlantic airspace for its very first Western Hemisphere flight. It was a vital test flight to test and calibrate its on board radio equipment and match its signals with those transmitted by Forbes and his team on the Adcock short wave radio direction finding equipment. Then came May 25, 1937. It was a proud day for Bermuda.
The Imperial Airways' Short Empire C class flying boat RMA Cavalier took off from the unofficially opened and not quite finished Darrell's Island Marine Air Terminal in the Great Sound, for New York. At the same time, the Pan American Airways' Sikorsky S-42, NC 16735, by then renamed by Mrs. Trippe as Bermuda Clipper, also flew from Port Washington, NY to Bermuda. She did a successful reciprocal survey of the route. (Especially noteworthy and quote worthy is the fact that this was two years before Pan Am started its New York to London service.)
RMA Cavalier was commanded by Capt. Neville Cumming, with co-pilot First Officer Neil Richardson, radio engineer Patrick Chapman, and steward Robert Spence. Bermuda Clipper was commanded by Capt. R. O. D. Sullivan. Passengers included Mr. John Barritt of John Barritt & Son Mineral Water Company; Major Neville, a staff officer at Admiralty House; Mr. E. P. T. Tucker, General Manager of John S. Darrell & Co.
Also aboard were Mr. E. R. Williams of J. E. Lightbourn & Co. (who later became Mayor of Hamilton); Mr. H. B. L. Wilkinson, of Bailey's Bay; Miss Minna Smith, a nurse at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital; Mr. Terry Mowbray, Sports Director of the Bermuda Trade Development Board. Mr. & Mrs. Richard Scott of Boston were there, returning from their honeymoon in Bermuda; and Mr. Eugene Kelly, Mrs. Alice James and Mrs. John Fullarton, all of New York. Later, in support of the two airlines and in anticipation of much more communications traffic, the West India and Panama Telegraph Company Ltd - in conjunction with Britain's Imperial & International Communications - installed an internal teleprinter system between the airlines' offices and the Air to Ground station.

	The achievement on June 15, 1919 of the first transatlantic flight in a Vickers Vimy bomber, by Captain John Alcock, Royal Air Force, and Lieutenant Arthur Whitten-Brown, Royal Flying Corps, who took off from St. John's, Newfoundland and landed at Clifton, Ireland in 16 hours and 12 minutes, gave fresh impetus to aviation in Bermuda. Major Henry "Hal" Kitchener of the Royal Flying Corps - a nephew of Field Marshal Earl Kitchener of Khartoum and son of a former Governor, returned to Bermuda. As a war hero, he teamed up with Major Hemming of the AFC, also an aviator during the Great War.
	They brought to Bermuda several aircraft most islanders had never seen before. They were three Avro 504K sea planes, two 2-seat Standard planes, a three seat model and three four seat Supermarine Channel Mark 1 flying boats. The two men wanted to make Bermuda a base for aeronautic surveys of Newfoundland in Canada and in Central and South America. Among their exclusive rights was one to spot whales from the air, to create a revival of Bermuda's once-dominant whaling industry. They selected Hinson's Island, which Major Kitchener owned after 1920, as their base and built two wood framed hangers there. They also built a slipway to serve both hangers. The slipway had rails to move the aircraft to and from the water. But their plans were ahead of their time. Their aircraft (right) were distinctive sights above the skies of Bermuda.
	They were fuelled by the Esso Company's West India Oil Company's wagons that put their cargoes of fuel on boats to make the crossing across Hamilton Harbor to the aircraft's' terminal on Hinson's Island. The aviation company did not survive for long. However, in its heyday it was the way many Bermudians got their first flight in an airplane - and it provided the talk of the town for many weeks. Bermudians had to wait 17 more years before they could fly to another jurisdiction

Bermuda's aviation history and pioneers

Military and civilian individuals who earned their special local flying claims to fame

Chronology of aircraft, flying boat and seaplane initiatives, adventures and losses

1918. November 2. A prestigious military decoration was awarded to a Bermudian First World War hero in London. He was Lieutenant Arthur Rowe Spurling, from Hamilton.

1919. May 22. First aircraft seen in Bermuda

1919. Bermuda and West Atlantic Aviation Company formed

1920. April. Three Supermarine Channel 3-passenger flying boats arrived in Bermuda

1925. February 20. Airship "Los Angeles" visits Bermuda

1925. April 21-34. Second visit of airship "Los Angeles"

1928. October 15. "Graff Zeppelin" LZ-127 flew over Bermuda

1929. May 21. Channel. G-EAEJ. Aircraft of the Bermuda and Western Atlantic Aviation Company. Lost.

1930. April 1. "Pilot Radio" aircraft saga thrills Bermuda

1931. Flight to/from Bermuda of seaplane "Tradewind." Lost

1931. August 31. "Pusher." Silver Wings Lost

1932. July. USS Akron, ZRS-4, flew from Lakehurst to Bermuda

1933. British military seaplanes were based in Bermuda

1934. May. Darrell's Island seaplane port conceived in Bermuda

1935. British Government pushed to compete with Trippe

1936. April 24. A. W. "Bill" Forbes pioneered Radio Direction finding for commercial aircraft in Bermuda.

1936. September 1. German aircraft in Bermuda

1936 French aircraft in Bermuda on survey flights from Paris to New York

1937. January 5. Bill Forbes Ship to-Shore radio direction finding initiatives supplement Air to Ground

1937. May 17. Services to/ from New York by Imperial Airways (now British Airways) and Pan American World Airways

1937. June 12. The million dollar terminal building at Bermuda's Darrell's Island Airport was opened

August 16. Pan Am began its transatlantic proving flights to and from Bermuda

1937. November 17. Imperial Airways and Pan Am transferred their USA terminal from New York to Baltimore

1938. 21 January. Loss of RMA "Cavalier" G-ADUU of Imperial Airways on Bermuda service.

1939. March. Pan Am's Boeing 314 NC 19604 began flying to Bermuda

1939. British construction of brand-new Royal Naval Air Station on Boaz Island

1940. August. Bermudian graduates of Bermuda Flying School left for England on SS Mataroa, bound for the Royal Air Force, or for Canada with the RCAF

1940. Use in Bermuda by the RAF and US Navy of the Brewster Bermuda

1941. May 6. Catalina, Royal Air Force (RAF) destroyed

1941. August. Spitfire Bermuda One

1941. November 27. Kingfisher. 2206. Lost

1941. December 13. Kingfisher. 2208. United States Navy of VS-5D4.

1941. December 20. First land-based aircraft in Bermuda landed at Kindley Field

1942. January. More Bermudian graduates of the Bermuda Flying School left Bermuda for England

1942. January 28. Kingfisher. 3084. United States Navy

1942. May. USA-based Colonial Airlines, formerly Canadian Colonial, was awarded the Washington - New York - Bermuda route.

1942. Wing Commander E. M. Ware, OBE, DFC, RAF (later, first Director of Civil Aviation in Bermuda) flew a Catalina to Boucherville, Montreal

1942. February 25. 2 RAF Catalinas. V7109 and V9724. RAF.

1942. June 7. Kingfisher. VS-2D1. United States Navy.

1943. June 22, 1943. Flying Officer John Hartley Watlington, Jr. missing

1943. July 15, USAF/ex USAAF aircraft crashed at Bermuda, with fatalities

1944. August 20. USN Martin PNB Mariner. 6717 lost, with deaths

1944. Flight Lieutenants Allan (Smokey) Wingood and Hugh Watlington, Royal Air Force, were decorated

1945. April 28. Two US Navy blimps arrived at Fort Bell/Kindley Bermuda from the USA, bound for Lagens.

1945. BOAC began thrice weekly Bermuda-Baltimore service from Darrell's Island, with Boeing 314 flying boats.

1945. July 30, 31. Luftwaffe Junkers JU 290A-4 110196 transited Bermuda

1946. January. Kindley Field Airport, Bermuda, was opened

1946. January. First commercial flight by any airline to Kindley Field Airport, Bermuda by Pan Am

1946. 15th January. Bermuda Air Agreement (Aviation)

1946. February 3. First Pan American Lockheed Constellation Flight to Bermuda, from New York

1946. March. British South American Airways Corporation (BSAAC) commenced services to Bermuda

1946. May. Colonial (later, Eastern) commenced service to Bermuda

1946. July 16. First British South American Airways (BSSA) aircraft visited Bermuda

1946. September 2. British South American Airways Corporation (BSAA) from Bermuda began commercial flights from land

1946. September. TCA survey flight to Bermuda

1947. May 28, BSAA began an in-flight refueled London-Bermuda flight

1947 September 5th. British South American Airways Avro 691 Lancastrian 3 aircraft landing crash

1947. October 13/14. Bermuda Sky Queen downed

1947 November 13th. Incident of British South American Airways Avro 691 Lancastrian 3 aircraft at Bermuda

1948. January 31. Loss of RMA "Star Tiger" on Bermuda service. Deaths

1948. April 26. Cubana began route from Havana to Madrid via Bermuda, Santa Maria and Lisbon.

1948. May 1. Trans Canada Airlines commenced Bermuda service

1948. Bermuda Air Tours Ltd. established

1948. December 3. New BSSA route to Bermuda

1949. January 17. Loss over Atlantic of "Star Ariel" of BSSA. Deaths

1949. August 17. Pan Am began Boeing Stratocruiser service to Bermuda, from New York.

1949. Kindley AFB Bermuda and Flight D, 2152nd Rescue Unit USAF

1949. Iberia Airlines started intermittent services to Bermuda

1949-50. BOAC's Avro York aircraft made regular visits

1950. March. USAF Globemaster. Loss

1950. March. BOAC Constellations began a once-weekly London to Azores to Bermuda to Nassau to Kingston to Santiago passenger service.

1950. July 1. The US Naval Operating Base in Bermuda was decommissioned

1950. April. Rescue of Bermudians and US Marines by SB-17.

1951. Qantas and Aerolineas Argentineas have intermittent flights to Bermuda

1951. November 11. Catalina. 46486. US Navy. Deaths

July 21, 1952, USAF from Bermuda aids a Swedish freighter

1952. December 6. Cubana Airlines. Loss and deaths