History of Aviation in Mauritius
The history of aviation in Mauritius is characterized by the remoteness of the island state of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean and goes back to the early 1920s with the first domestic flights of aviation pioneers.
history
1920s
For the first domestic flight on June 2, 1922 by Major FW Honnet, a British biplane from the First World War was shipped to Mauritius by sea and reassembled in Vacoas . Take-off and landing took place in the area where the golf course of the Gymkhana Club of Mauritius at Vacoas is today. The aircraft was then dismantled again and transported back to England by ship .
1930s
To date, flights to the region in Madagascar have ended . The aviation pioneer Maurice Samat from Réunion was so impressed by a demonstration flight in 1929 that he decided to get a pilot's license in France , where he also acquired a Potez 43 . The machine was also dismantled and shipped to Réunion, where it was reassembled and blessed. Samat decided to train a few friends to become pilots and to found the Aéroclub Roland Garros together . On September 10, 1933, the first international flight from Réunion to Mauritius by Maurice Samat, Paul Lous Lemerle and Jean Hily took place in Samats Potez 43. The landing, in which the 800 kg machine came to a standstill within 12 seconds, took place on a race track near the beach of Mon Choisy, where the so-called Samat Monument was erected in memory and inaugurated on August 22, 1935. The flight lasted two hours and 32 minutes and there were 1,084 letters on board as cargo. Since then, Jean Hily (1904–1934), who died a year later on October 4, 1934 in a plane crash between Mauritius and Réunion and left a son Claude, has been the first pilot from Mauritius.
On November 9, 1933 Maurice Samat, Paul Lous Lemerle and Jean Hily from Mauritius carried out a flight from Mauritius to Réunion to transport mail. Two Potez 43s and a Caudron Renault C280 with a 150CV engine were used, which enabled speeds of 160 km / h and a range of 750 km.
The first commercial flight from Mauritius was chartered by Abdulla Currimjee, operated by Hily on November 18, 1933, and the destination of the business trip was Réunion, which cost 6000 francs .
In the years that followed, the Mon Choisy circuit was used for more irregular aircraft take-offs and landings.
In December 1936 LV Laurent, Joseph Tougé and Roger Lenier flew with a Farman 199 from France via Tunis , Cairo , Djibouti and Antananarivo to Mauritius. The outward flight took 10 days. Due to various technical difficulties, they needed 23 days from January 20, 1937 to February 11, 1937 to return to France.
1940s
During the Second World War , the Royal Air Force built an area of 263 hectares near Mahébourg from 1942 to 1943 into a military airfield. Since then, the Mon Choisy racetrack has played no role in air traffic. From September 1943, the 259th and later the 265th squadron of the Royal Air Force used the airport for stopovers in order to carry out missions against submarines over the Indian Ocean with twin-engine sea reconnaissance aircraft of the type Consolidated PBY "Catalina" . These had previously landed in the Bay of Mahébourg or in Baie du Tombeau for refueling . From November 24, 1943, the airport was operated twice a week by Douglas DC-3 Dakota transport aircraft , which were used by the Royal Air Force on the route from Nairobi via Mombasa , Dar es Salaam , Lindi , Antsiranana to Mauritius. After the end of the Second World War, the Royal Air Force stopped using the airport, so that from then on it was available for civil aviation.
From February 1945 Mauritius was served weekly by Résau de Lignes Aériennes Françaises Libres , which was later taken over by Air France , and connected to Antananarivo and Réunion. Here machines of the type Junkers Ju-52 were used, which could carry 15 passengers in addition to a three-person crew. In 1947 Air France used Douglas DC-4 from Paris, which reached Mauritius after a two-day flight with six stopovers. Between January 1948 and June 1949 British Airways flew to the airport with aircraft of the type Avro Lancastrian . In June 1948, a Lancastrian of the Australian airline Qantas used the airport for a stop on its 42-hour flight from Sydney to Johannesburg with further stops in Perth and the Cocos Islands . However, the airport was not regularly flown to on this route until 1952, when the use of Lockheed Constellation machines reduced the flight time to 39 hours.
1950s and 1960s
Commercial flights between the African continent, Europe and Australia have been offered from Mauritius Airport since the early 1950s. In November 1957, Mauritius Airport was served by Douglas DC-6B of South African Airways on their way to Perth .
In January 1962, the British Overseas Airways Corporation's Bristol Britannia flew the airport from London via Rome , Khartoum , Nairobi and Antananarivo on their 25-hour flight. In October 1962, this route was served by the Comet 4 in just 17 hours.
From November 1966, Air France started using Boeing 707 on the connection from Paris via Djibouti and Réunion to Mauritius. Machines of the same type were used from August 15, 1967 by Air India every 14 days on the route from Bombay .
With the independence from Mauritius on March 12, 1968, Air Mauritius began its service, which was founded on June 14, 1967. Initially, Air Mauritius provided the ground crew for other airlines. From August 1972, she began air traffic with a Piper PA-31 Navajo rented from Air Madagascar to Réunion and Rodrigues. In 1973 a Vickers Super VC 10 was leased from British Airways and the flight connection to London was started. With a Boeing 707-420 , which was leased from British Airtours , Air Mauritius took part in air traffic for the first time on November 1, 1977 in its own colors.
Currently
International flights are handled via the Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport of Mauritius near Mahébourg (until 1987: Aéroport de Plaisance). Transfer flights to the individual hotels and sightseeing flights by helicopter can also be booked from this airport. There are daily flights to Rodrigues .
In 2001, 996,500 passengers were carried on domestic and international flights.
Airports
Mauritius has five airports that are licensed for civil aviation. Two of them have paved taxiways. Sir Gaëtan Duval Airport is located on Rodrigues. The only international airport among these is Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport of Mauritius .
literature
- Ben R. Guttery: Encyclopedia of African Airlines . Ben Guttery, 1998, ISBN 978-0-7864-0495-7 , pp. 291 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Ben R. Guttery: Encyclopedia of African Airlines . Ben Guttery, 1998, ISBN 978-0-7864-0495-7 , pp. 291 ( full text in Google Book Search).
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac pages.intnet.mu: Aviation History in Mauritius , accessed on March 12, 2016
- ↑ a b c d e f lemauricien.com: 80E ANNIVERSAIRE: Jean Hily premier Mauricien à assurer la liaison aérienne Réunion-Maurice , September 13, 2013
- ↑ lemauricien.com: THE FIRST COMMERCIAL FLIGHT FROM MAURITIUS TO REUNION ISLAND: Mon Choisy whispers the exploit of Abdulla Currimjee , Assad Bhuglah, December 13, 2011
- ^ Air Mauritius : Helicopter Tours , accessed March 12, 2016
- ↑ a b nationsencyclopedia.com: Mauritius - Transportation , accessed March 12, 2016
- ↑ mapsofworld.com: Mauritius Islands , accessed on March 12, 2016