Union Airways
| Union Airways | |
|---|---|
| IATA code : | (without) |
| ICAO code : | (without) |
| Call sign : | |
| Founding: | 1929 |
| Operation stopped: | 1934 |
| Seat: |
Durban , South Africa.svg){kind=small}
|
| Company form: | Proprietary Limited Company (Pty Ltd) |
| Fleet size: | 12 |
| Aims: | national |
| Union Airways ceased operations in 1934. The information in italics refer to the last status before the end of operation. | |
Union Airways Pty Ltd (UA), also known as Union Airways of South Africa , was the first commercial South African airline . It was founded in 1929 by a successful fighter pilot from the First World War and operated for five years as an independent private company until it was taken over by the South African government in 1934 and renamed South African Airways , which still operates under that name today.
history
The airline was founded on August 26, 1929 in Port Elizabeth by the then Major Allister M. Miller (1892-1951), a South African fighter pilot and flight ace from the First World War , who had recruited about 2000 volunteers for the British Royal Flying Corps . The term "Union" referred to the then official name of the country Union of South Africa ( South African Union ), which should emphasize the character of a national airline.
Miller had tried years earlier to set up a South African airline. However, the South African Aerial Navigation Company from which the South African Aerial Transports Ltd (1919-1920) emerged were unsuccessful because funding was not guaranteed. Another short-lived and equally unsuccessful founding by Miller in 1922 was the Rhodesian Aerial Tours in southern Rhodesia to the north .
The airline was the refinery -Unternehmen Atlantic Refining Company funded and supported by a small grant from the government. The headquarters were initially in the Fairview suburb of Port Elizabeth , but were later relocated to Stamford Hill in Durban . The company colors were red and yellow and the company logo consisted of a sign with a stylized airplane .
In 1929 it began transporting airmail and light cargo with five De Havilland DH.60 Gipsy Moth aircraft, and in 1930 it also took passengers between Port Elizabeth , Johannesburg , Cape Town and Durban . In 1930, a Fokker Super Universal and two De Havilland DH.80 Puss Moths were added, but all three of them crashed in 1931, whereby in two cases everyone on board was killed.
To replace the lost aircraft, Union Airways bought four Junkers F 13s from South West African Airways (SWAA) in 1932 , which belonged to the Junkers aircraft factory in the German Reich and which has operated a weekly airmail service between Windhoek and Kimberley since that year . Also in 1932 the UA and SWAA merged, but continued to operate under their own separate names. UA and SWAA merged in the same year.
In late 1932, the Irish playwright and politician George Bernard Shaw celebrated his 75th birthday with a flight in one of the Junkers F 13. In 1933 Union Airways presented a Junkers F 13 to General Jan Smuts, Deputy Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa, for a campaign tour . The Junkers planes once again proved their worth and none of these planes crashed at the UA.
In 1934, in order to avoid the financial collapse, the company was sold to the South African government on February 1, renamed South African Airways (SAA) and became South African Railways and Harbors (the former South African railroad - today Transnet Freight Rail ) incorporated. The first goals of the new society that still exists today were again Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg.
The company founder worked after the Second World War , in which he joined the South African Air Force (SAAF) to run several flight schools for them and rose to (Lieutenant-Colonel) ( Lieutenant Colonel ), for the successor company South African Airways until his Death due to illness in 1951 as head of public relations .
fleet
- 5 De Havilland DH.60 Gipsy Moth (1929)
- 1 Fokker Super Universal (1930)
- 2 De Havilland DH.80 Puss Moth (1930)
- 4 Junkers F 13 (1932)
literature
- Illsley, JW (2003), In Southern Skies
- Reader's Digest (1980), South Africa's Yesterdays
