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Aviation History
1946
1946 - 1151.PDF
n JUNE 13TH, 1946 589 using Lancastrians. Soon the schedule is to be stepped up to a daily frequency and, before the end of the year, will operate with the Merlin- engined DC-4S. Linked, in a sense, with these transatlantic services is the R.A.F. Transport Command's " Prestwick-Blackbushe Shuttle," which func- tions regularly each day, irrespective of weather, bringing transatlantic passengers for London within a 1^ hours' coach run of their destination. Another transatlantic service which now uses 2. On? of Scottish Airlines' converted C.47S whichare in operation on the Prestwick to Belfast, and on the Reykjavik to Copenhagen via Prestwickroutes. These aircraft were converted to full passen- ger standard by Scottish Aviation. 7. A general view of theairport hotel and ter- minal building. came into being and, as the ferrying commitment grew, so the expansion of the airfield became efsential and was put into effect. The most notable improvement, of course, was the con- strucfion of the runways, which was undertaken in 1941 upon Lord Beaver- brook's direction, with, in addition, the pro- vision of adequate factory accommodation for the assembly of lend-lease aircraft. Prestwick was used continuously by American airline operators between May, 1942, and September, 1945. In addition, B.O.A.C. have been using it as a terminal for their Return Ferry service which, until the end of April this year when the service was partially re-routed, had completed over two thousand North Atlantic crossings between Montreal and Prestwick during the five and half years of its operation. Another airline using it as a terminal is Trans-Canada Airlines, which first began to operate its transatlantic service to Prestwick in 1943. In September last year, the T.C.A. service was opened to fare-paying passengers, and it now runs five times'weekly in both directions, the airport is the K.L.M. "Flying Dutchman," which was inaugurated on May 21. It operates Skymasters between Amsterdam and New York, via Prestwick, and is running to a three times weekly schedule. In addition to the transatlantic services, the airport is also used by services run under charter by Scottish Air- lines, notably that between Prestwick and Belfast, and a new service between Copenhagen and Reykjavik via Prestwick which started at the beginning of this month. The aircraft used are C.47S (alias Dakotas) which have been converted by Scottish Aviation in their own fac- tories at Prestwick. Another new route will open on July 17, when Air France will run the first service of a direct thrice-weekly schedule from Paris. There is no doubt that, at the moment, as can be seen from the accompanying photographs, Prestwick has excellent buildings and facilities for handling passengers and aircraft. The airport's future, however, in common with that of our other airports, is now in the hands of the Minister of Civil Aviation. What his ultimate plan may be for Prestwick is not yet clear, but a few days ago B.O.A.C. notified their intention of routing, eventually, two Constellations a week through the airport.
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