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Aviation History
1952
1952 - 0778.PDF
1931: Swissair took over two of these Junkers F.13 four-passenger sea planes from Ad Astra Aero A.G. The F.13 first flew in 1919; the type was in world-wide service for many years. 1931: This Fokker F.VIIa, built in 1927, came from "Balair" (Bos/e Air Traffic Co.). It was later re-registered HB-LBO and in 1950 was retired and presented to the Swiss Postal Museum in Berne. 1932: One of Swissair's two red-and-white Lockheed Orion mono planes. These were the first modern low-wing, retractable-undercarriage transports introduced by a European airline. 1935: Swissair was one of the first European airlines to operate Douglas DC-2s. Two are still in service with the company. 352 FLIGHT • 21 YEARS C Steady Growth and Devek A LMOST exactly 21 years ago, on March 26th, 1931, /% Schweizeriche Luftverkehr A.G.—Swissair—was formed by the amalgamation of Ad Astra Aero A.G., known as Ad Astra, and the Basle Air Traffic company, known as "Balair." Ad Astra came into being in 1919 as the first Swiss air transport company. Walter Mittelholzer, for long Switzer land's most famous pilot, was largely responsible for the development of this company and he later became a director and the chief pilot of Swissair, holding both posts until he was killed in a mountaineering accident in May, 1937 During Ad Astra's 12 years of existence it operated with a varied fleet which included Macchi 18 flying-boats, de Havil- land D.H.9, Dornier Komet and Merkur, Fokker F.VIIIb/3m and Junkers F.13, A.20 and G.23 aircraft. Balair was formed in 1925 and soon afterwards opened the first Swiss "long-distance" route, between Basle and Brussels, Rotterdam and Amsterdam. The company operated with Fokker monoplanes of the F.II, F.III, F.VIIa and F.VIIb/m types. By 1928 Ad Astra was operating a Zurich-Berlin route and Balair had opened a Geneva-Vienna service. The two com panies realized that their separate existence, with the division of effort, was not healthy for Swiss air transport; so Swissair was formed, with a capital of S.Fr.800,000. The original fleet consisted of Junkers F.13, Dornier Merkur, Fokker F.VIIa and F.VIIb/3m and B.F.W. M 18D and M23 aircraft taken over from the constituent companies. Soon after the formation of the new concern two different routes were opened between Switzerland and Paris and in the following year Swissair became the first European airline to introduce U.S.-designed and built high-speed aircraft of the then new low-wing, all-metal, retractable-undercarriage monoplane formula; this was when it introduced two 175 m.p.h. Lockheed Orions on its Zurich-Munich-Vienna service. The venture, which almost halved the flying time on that route, focused much attention on Swissair, brought heavy bookings and proved to the company that its intro duction of the new, fast aircraft was a wise policy. In 1935, therefore, the airline introduced a fleet of the then-new 14-passenger Douglas DC-2S and these were used to inaugurate operations to the United Kingdom, when a Zurich-Basle-London service was opened. In 1936 and 1937, Swissair bought two Junkers Ju86 monoplanes, each powered by two 600 h.p. Jumo 205C diesel engines, thus becoming the second airline to use diesel power (Deutsche Lufthansa having been the first) and the Ju86s were used on the Zurich-Frankfurt-am-Main night mail service, the company having opened a night mail service between Basle and Frankfurt as early as May 1st, 1934. Swiss air traffic rose steadily and larger aircraft became a necessity; so, in 1937, the company commissioned a fleet of 21-passenger Douglas DC-3S and by 1939 was operating the following routes : Basle-Zurich-Vienna; Zurich-Stuttgart- Halle/Leipzig-Berlin (in pool with Deutsche Lufthansa); Zurich-St. Gallen-Munich; Zurich-St. Gallen; Zurich- Basle-Paris; Zurich-Basle-London; Basle-Frankfurt-am- Main (mail only); Zurich-Basle-Rotterdam-Amsterdam (in pool with K.L.M.) and Geneva-Paris (in pool with Air France). In addition to its regular services, the company has always taken advantage of its magnificent local scenery and undertaken extensive joy-riding and regular sight-seeing tours, a small fleet being maintained for this purpose. The war had a very serious effect on Swissair's operations, and comparatively little flying could be undertaken. A Zurich-Stuttgart-Berlin service was operated, but on January 29th, 1943, the Stuttgart-Berlin sector had to be abandoned although a few special flights were made to Berlin. Germany was then an extremely unhealthy place for civil airline operation and, in fact, the company's DC-2 HB-ISI was destroyed in a U.S.A.F. raid on Stuttgart. The company
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