FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1950
1950 - 0248.PDF
I64 FLIGHT^ 2 February 1950 BRITISH AIRLINE h T L A N T I C 0 C £ A N GUIANA'S Official Encouragement for a Service that is Opening-up the Colony's Hinterland Maj. A. J.Williams, O.B.E..pioneered many of the routes. With the author,he organized an expedi- tion into the Rupununisavannahs (see map). AIK transport will play an increasingly important partin the development of the economic possibilities of^ British Guiana's 78,700 square miles of hinterland. Successful prosecution of schemes embracing planned settle- ment of some 100,000 surplus British West Indian popula- tion and European displaced persons in the interior of the Colony within the next ten years will depend largely on air transport in at least the initial stages. Foreseeing such an eventuality, a former Governor, Sir Gordon Lethem, suc- ceeded during his term of office in inducing the Colony's Government to take an active financial interest in the expansion of British Guiana Airways, a privately owned subsidized internal air service which to-day operates a fleet of six aircraft, comprising two Dakotas, three Grurn- mans, and a Wasp-engined Ireland. [A pre-war American make, not very widely known.—ED., Flight.^ Begun in 1934 Dy Mr. (now Major) Arthur James * In an article in the December issue of " The Crown Colonist." Water strip : A Grumman Goose takes off from Baramita Pool, 2,500ft long by 150ft wide. Air routes extend beyond the reach of road and rail. Williams, an American who owns the controlling interest in the company, the development of air transportation in British Guiana has been rather spectacular. Indeed, the advent of internal air transport has been a primary factor in the unprecedented large-scale mining expansion and other developments over the Colony's sprawling hinterland, extending from Baramita in the North-West District to the headwaters of the Essequibo River in the South Rupununi district. At first the British Guiana Government were disinclined to grant Mr. Williams a licence to operate an air service in the Colony, mainly because earlier attempts to inaugurate such a service had proved failures. But the British Guiana- Brazil Boundary Commission was so greatly helped by Mr. Williams' service that early in 1938 the Government appointed a committee to explore the possibilities of ensur- ing an air service for the Colony, and as a result Mr. A. J. Williams and his business associate, Mr. J. H. Hunter, a British subject resident in New York, were authorized to operate an internal service. The terms of the contract pro- vided only for charter flights, and it was not until June, 1944, that the first regular passenger-mail-freight service was put into operation, with fortnightly runs to the Mazaruni district, and monthly runs to the Rupununi savannahs. Since then, British Guiana Airways have been able to develop an almost indispens- able service, providing rapid, re- liable and convenient means of transport to the various remote and hitherto inaccessible riverain areas of the Colony. It was not until the closing stages of the war that active steps were taken to establish air- strips for civil purposes in the in- terior of the Colony. This was facilitated by grants totalling £25,500, made available under the
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
