Bermuda-Kindley AFB and Oakes Field. Nassau

[connieguy]

Although there has been recent comment about the absence of Canadian airports from the Cal Classic world the one that I have missed most is Bermuda/Kindley AFB. I believe that Mike Stevens is at work on the Caribbean and no doubt when his package is released it will be as marvellous as all the others. However, in the meantime I have decided to do something about Bermuda, especially as it existed in the 1950s, when it was visited by a number of civilian operators including BOAC, and when Kindley was heavily used by MATS as a refuelling point on the Atlantic crossing to the Azores. I have the Cal Classic MATS traffic activated and even though my ai traffic is only set at 66% I found that I needed to create ten military cargo parking spaces at the eastern end of the airport to stop them parking at the civilian terminal at the western end. The link below provides detailed information on the history of the airport and there is a link to another page on Kindley AFB which has many photographs from the 1950s. In FS2004 terms I do not recommend Freeflow Bermuda, which has been responsible for crashes on my system. However, the late Toni Agramont's Bermuda scenery is worth bothering with, and I have it installed below the scenery I have created.  I can release this scenery if there is sufficient interest.

Another airport of interest is Nassau - Oakes Field, which was replaced by the present airport on a different site in 1957. A version of it by Todd Lucas is available on Flightsim but the runways are too short to have been used by anything other than light aircraft. Does anybody have any information on how big they actually were in the mid 1950s, please?

www.bermuda-online.org/aviation.htm

Since making this post I have come across a plan of the motor racing circuit which followed closure of the Oakes Field airport. It looks like a longish north-south runway and a shorter west-east one. I shall be inclined to make the north-south one 5,600 feet, this being none too much to land an L 049 Constellation which did not have reversible propellers. There is virtually nothing now left of either the airport or motor racing circuit.

www.racingcircuits.info/north-america/the-bahamas/nassau-oakes-field.html

[Al]

Thanks for the link. Looks like some interesting reading. I would be interested in your scenery and will check out Toni scenery as well. I have not visited Kindley AFB yet to check out its traffic.

[srgalahad]

Jun 4, 2019 7:13:58 GMT -5 connieguy said:

Another airport of interest is Nassau - Oakes Field, which was replaced by the present airport on a different site in 1957. A version of it by Todd Lucas is available on Flightsim but the runways are too short to have been used by anything other than light aircraft. Does anybody have any information on how big they actually were in the mid 1950s, please?

Digging through timetables,it appears that Bahamas Airways listed only Catalinas and Goose, both of which may have used the water. They went as far as West Palm Beach (1949) and Miami at some later time. I couldn't find any detail later into the 50's but the May 1, 1958 sked adds "completely modern 4-engine DeHavilland Herons" in addition to the Geese and Cats. www.timetableimages.com/ttimages/bh.htm

On the other hand Trans Canada served a Montreal-Toronto-Tampa-Nassau route from 1950 thru 1956 with North Stars (in a 40 seat config)and the July 1956 Pan Am sked lists Miami-Nassau as a DC-6 service.

5600 ft might be snug but the legs are relatively short and they could go light on fuel.

[Tom/CalClassic]

In 1956 Nassau was served by:

Bahamas - Heron, Goose
BOAC - Viscount, Stratocruiser
Mackey - DC-3
Pan American - CV-240, DC-6B
Trans-Canada - North Star

Hope this helps,

[connieguy]

Thank you very much gentlemen. BOAC's L049s were replaced over the North Atlantic route to New York by Stratocruisers in 1949-1950 and were then used to open a southern route via Lisbon and Bermuda to Nassau, Kingston and Havana. In 1951 there were also return services from New York to both Bermuda and Nassau using L049s; details in the BOAC timetables for July 1950 and July 1951, both available on the timetables website. I have flown the service from London to Havana, the flight between the Azores and Bermuda landing two hours ahead of schedule because there was virtually no headwind at all.
The Nassau west-east runway I have made 4,500 feet and the north-south one 5,600 feet. Prevailing winds seem to make a landing on Runway 12 (west-east) quite likely and 4,500 feet is in fact more than long enough for an L049, so I was wrong in suggesting above that 5,600 would be rather tight. Although it is said that neither of the Nassau Oakes Field runways survive there is something that looks very like the west-east one if you examine the satellite map just west of The Thomas Robinson Stadium.

[Dennis the menace]

Oakes Field International airport closed operations at midnight on 1 November, 1957 when the new airport Nassau International was fully in operation.

By late 1957, Oakes Field had already been converted into "Oakes Course", a race track.  The first race took place on 1 December, 1957.  It is now closed and has been replaced with new development.