Post by Deleted on Apr 5, 2021 4:55:49 GMT -5
My dad was one of the first SWissair navigators in 1946. The first years he mostly flew to Cairo and Basrah. Some weeks ago I again looked through a stack of postcards he sent from his flights. Several of them were dated from the end of August 1947 and written during an Atlantic flight. That was four months after the maiden flight from Geneva to New York.
I was wondering why there are numerous airfields mentioned, that were not approached on maiden flight, an almost no more in later years. In the meantime I came across an article through a philately club (!), that described exactly this special flight.
From August 21st to 29th, Swissair carried out a so-called survey flight to America with the purpose to prepare Swissair crews for the upcoming flights on the North Atlantic Route. The goal was to land on as many alternative airfields as possible an to studfy the various weather services. This flight was carried out with the Douglas DC-4 HB-ILO.
The route led from Geneva to Shannon, Prestwick, Reykjavik, Goose Bay, Stephensville, Moncton, Washington DC, Newark, Boston, Halifax, Sidney, Gander, Lajes and Santa Maria, and back to Geneva. The Reykjavik-Goose Bay stage was used for reconnaissance purposes and flew over the southern tip of Greenland.
I recreated the flight as AI traffic and used the HB-ILI, as no textures are available for HB-ILO.
HB-ILI leaving Geneva Cointrin at early morning,
reaching Le Havre,
and landing at Shannon
flying over Belfast City Airport and Harland & Wolff shipyards
on final at Prestwick
and parked there.
HB-ILI over Isle of Mull while leaving Scotland for Iceland
and approaching and taxiing in at Reykjavik.
After having crossed the European North Sea it reached the Southern coast of Greenland,
the Labrador Sea, it reached the North American continent at Rigolet, Labrador,
and landed at Goose Bay.
The stairs have their reason to be shown here!
the accompanying head of Swissair propaganda (now known as advertising manager) reported following amazing story: "On this survey flight We particular have seen the concrete runways from sixteen different airfields. But we saw most of the concrete runways in Goose Bay. There were so many, that the aircraft ended up on the wrong one. Some belong to the Americans, the other to the Canadians. We ended up with the Americans. These asked fifty dollars for pushing an exit staircase. That was too much for the crew, and so the Americans just took the stairs away again! We got away cheaper with the Canadians at the other end of the square. You can see what such a training flight could be used for ..."
Next stops were at Stephensville and Moncton (here shown with BCATP scenery)
overflew Manhattan
and Baltimore Municipal Airport,
to finally reach Washington DC.
On the flight back to Switzerland stopovers have been done
at Newark,
Boston Logan,
Halifax,
Sidney,
and Gander in the night.
After having crossed the North Atlantic again, the aircraft reached The Azores.
It first landed at Lajes
and later at Santa Maria.
HB-ILI left Azores during the night and reached the European continent and Portuguese coast next morning.
On he way to Geneva it overflew La Coruna,
Lake of Hourtin at French Atlantic coast (known for its former seaplane base)
and the rivers Garonne and Dordogne at Bordeaux,
to reach at last Geneva Airport again,
while it flew over a Swiss train connecting Zurich to Geneva (thanks Sabi!)
I just would like to add, that it was quite emotional to search and recreate this survey flight. In a way it brought me back to my childness, even if then I was only two years old.
Bernard
