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Aviation History
1953
1953 - 0795.PDF
19 June 1953 789 BELGRADE JOURNEY The Inaugural Flight of Eagle Aviation's Scheduled Service to Jugoslavia "TT? AGLE, Belgrade" was the illuminated inscription |^ over desk 12 at the Waterloo Air Terminal on Saturday •^—"^ morning, June 6th. A harassed traffic manager was the only other sign that a new service was being inaugurated that day, in fact the first direct scheduled post-war flight between Britain and Jugoslavia. It was also the first scheduled service to be operated by Eagle Aviation, Ltd., the inde pendent company, which has been granted a seven-year licence for the London-Belgrade route. The aircraft used for the flight was Viking G-AKBH, Sir Henry Morgan, one of the ex-B.E.A machines recently purchased by Eagle. Interior furnishings remain as in the Corporation's service (27 seats are fitted), while the external paint scheme has been slightly altered. Our crew was to comprise Capt. H. Watkins, ist/Off. R. J. Cormican, Chief R/Off. P. H. Finnegan, R/Off. D. Denby, Eng'Off. R. Bennett and Stewardess Mary Tuffy. In addition to the number of passengers (British and Jugoslav), a quantity of mail and freight was carried. At 10.15 the weather promised to be fine as the Viking rose from Blackbushe into a warm blue sky, cleared the London Con trol Zone, and set course for Munich at 9,500ft. Coastal cloud over Dover and Dunkirk preceded more scattered cumulus as Roubaix, the Ardennes, and Luxembourg passed below. The typical closely-striped curves of agricultural patchwork—slashed here and there by the NATO airstrips—then disappeared from view as we entered a forest of magnificent cloud formations. As we crossed the Rhine, Stewardess Tuffy—an Australian, previously with T.A.A.—began to serve lunch. Normally, a crew of four will be carried; on this particular trip R/OrT. Denby was receiving familiarization training as an additional crew-member. Munich was our mid-way stop, after three hours 12 minutes flying time. Here the refuelling and passenger-handling arrange ments—a B.E.A. responsibility by contract with Eagle—were supervised by Mr. D. C. L. Oxley, the Corporation's station manager there. Passengers waited in the large, impressive, red stone terminal building as the aircraft chores were completed; a red Swiss Jungmann taxied in and out briskly to contrast with the Skymaster, Viking, Dakota and Convair movements of the big airhnes, and at 1453 hr Sir Henry Morgan took off again, on what was, perhaps, the more interesting leg of its journey. The white-topped Austrian Alps appeared as an imposing back-cloth as we approached Salzburg at 11,500ft. Then we flew on towards Graz between a text-book selection of fascinating clouds above and the awesome close view of the mountains themselves below, including the 9,800ft peak of Mount Dachstein, to star board. A starboard turn at Graz pointed the aircraft towards Jugo slavia and the Zagreb beacon, after which came a turn to port and the final long straight leg to Belgrade. We passed over slightly hilly farmland and isolated communities, with here and there the colour-splash of newly-built houses and farm buildings, before the ground was masked by a thick layer of strato-cumulus, through which the let-down to Belgrade was made. Final approach to Zemun airport was along the line of the Sava river, with the Danube—a muddy brown Danube—visible ahead of the city where both rivers join. The landing was made 2 hr 50 min after the take-off from Munich; a total of almost exactly 6 hr flying time from Blackbushe. Taxying-in, we passed several Dakotas of J.A.T., the Jugoslav national airline, parked alongside the perimeter track. The return trip began the following morning, Sunday. With the Viking's relatively light load, the technical stop at Munich was deemed unnecessary and a non-stop flight plan was accord ingly filed. Although Zemun is not primarily a military aero drome, an amount of military activity does take place there; as Sir Henry Morgan was being refuelled, army parachutists were Four pictures of "Sir Henry Morgan", taken during the Belgrade journey. (Top to bottom) In front of the Zemun and Munich terminal buildings, being loaded with mail at Blackbushe, and as a background (at Black bushe again, after the trip) to crew-members Finnegan, Watkins, Bennett, Tuffy, Denby and Cormican.
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