General Aviation GA-43J SCADTA on River Magdalena Line

[Deleted]

In 1934 General Aviation built only four GA-43 - two where bought by Swissair, one was used by Spanish LAPE, and one equipped with floats and delivered to the Colombian SCADTA. This version named GA-43J flew from the Atlantic town Barranquilla to Girardot, following upstream the Magdalena River. This later town was connected by train with the capital city Bogota.

The GA-43 was a very modern, complex design for that time. Here taking off at Barranquilla




and approaching Girardot.



During its history SCADTA used several other floatplanes like the Junkers F.13 and W,34, Sikorsky S-38 and S-41, asl well as Ford 5-AT.


Then Bogota's main airport was Techo Airfield, until El Dorado was opened in 1959. Here a Fokker VIIIa.



Bernard

[nmlw]

Another interesting vintage post Bernard. I like the sepia tone photos.

[Tom/CalClassic]

I keep forgetting that General Aviation was the old Fokker of America company after takeover by GM. They also built a GA-38 trimotor in response to TWA’s request that resulted in the DC-1 winning the bid. Wonder what airliner history would have been if GA won that one? It never flew.

[Deleted]

The GA-43 was designed by Virginius E. Clark when he was working for a small development company based at Farmingdale, NY and than owned by Fairchild. This is the reason why the aircraft is also known as Clark GA-43. Beginning Thirties General Aviation moved to Dundalk, ML, better known as Logan Field, Baltimore's first airfield.

I added this airfield as best as I could. Even "Freeman's Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields" site shows very little.



Finally I opted for a more colorful SweetFX setting, as Sepia renditions are sometimes too dark. Furthermore I like the rather kitschy depiction mostly seen on older US aviation postcards and fitting fine with this era. 


Bernard

[Al]

Very nice rendition Bernard

[darrenvox]

good stuff