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Aviation History
1958
1958-1- - 0765.PDF
14 November 1958 769 the initiative of Mr. Bernard Dromgoole and Mr. M. Myhill (bothof whom are directors of Overseas Aviation, a British carrier based in Jersey). Initially, L.T.U. acted only as an agent but inNovember 1955 a fleet of four Vikings was acquired (two from Eagle, one from Alfons Amann, and one from B.E.A.). A fifthViking was acquired in 1957 from Field Aircraft Services. Alteration in the German law concerning foreign participationin local companies made it necessary for British interests to be withdrawn, and the company's capital of DM.|m is now entirelycontributed internally. The present name was adopted last April to avoid confusion with Union Transport Betriebe, a Dusseldorffirm of freight forwarders. Shortly after starting operations in March 1956 L.T.U. appliedto the Ministry of Transport to conduct scheduled services between Dusseldorf, Hamburg and Munich, but this was refused.The company has continued to operate charter services, concen- trating on inclusive tours to the Mediterranean for Transeuropa(Munich), Aeropa (Hamburg), H. Otto Deutsche Flugreisen (Hamburg), Turadio (Munich) and Luftomnibus (Munich). Theairline recently formed a subsidiary company, Luftourisdk Unternehmen Seibert, to arrange inclusive tours. L.T.U. havealso operated various inclusive tours and freight services on behalf of Sabena and K.L.M. Restrictions on non-scheduled services imposed by the AustrianGovernment led to some difficulty this summer, but the forma- tion of Aerotransport, an Austrian independent with which L.T.U.is closely associated, has allowed the resumption of charter ser- vices to Austria. The threatened Italian ban on charter flyinghas not yet materialized but is expected to be put into effect next year. L.T.U. would be severely affected by such action. Early this year a DC-4 was acquired from Twentieth Century,an American company that had previously obtained this aircraft from A.NA. The DC-4, together with a Bristol 170 purchasedfrom the British War Office in 1957, now form the basis of L.T.U.'s fleet, and their smaller aircraft are being sold: oneViking to Aerotransport; two other Vikings to Aviameer; and a Dove to Martins Air Charter (the last two companies beingnewly founded independent carriers in Belgium and the Nether- lands respectively). Deutsche Luftfahrtberatungsdienst, an associated company, isthe principal supplier of Viking spares in Germany. Chairman of L.T.U. is Mr. Curt Conle, the other directors being Ernst Seibertand William Sachsenberg. The airline's manager is E. von Manteuffel. Transavia Flug G.m.bJL Although Transavia was onlyfounded in December 1957 the airline's predecessors go back as far as 1949, when Aero Express was founded in Munich byHerr Russell, a director of the pre-war Lufthansa. After an erratic history this company suspended operations in 1956, its fleet offive Vikings being acquired by Herr Karl Herfurtner, a well-known German hotelier. A sixth Viking (ex-Eagle) and two DC-4s werelater added to the fleet and the airline became known as Luftreederei Karl Herfurtner. During 1957 one of the Vikingscrashed at Palma and in the autumn of that year one of the DC-4s was destroyed on taking off from Dusseldorf on a trans-atlantic charter flight. Shortly afterwards the company was taken over by Dr. H. Tigges and Dr. A. Fischer, joint owners of anold-established travel agency based in Wuppertal and trading under the name Tigges Fahrten. Tigges-Fischer had previouslybeen Karl Herfurtner's chief customer, and they now proceeded to reorganize the airline, renaming it Transavia Fluggesellschaft(using the initials of the two owners) and establishing its initial capital at DM.lm. A replacement DC-4 was acquired, and it ispossible that DC-6 equipment will soon be obtained. Transavia is run on the basis that two-thirds of the total capacityis reserved for Tigges Fahrten, the remaining capacity being avail- able for outside charter. A high proportion of flying is on routesto Palma and Teneriffe which attract considerable volumes of both summer and winter traffic. Annual utilization rates average1,800 hr for each of the DC-4s and 1,300 hr for the Vikings. With the acquisition of more four-engined equipment, the fiveVikings will be put on to freight operations. At their own base at Dusseldorf, Transavia conduct all their maintenance exceptfor DC-4 engine overhauls which are undertaken by S.A.S. on a powerplant exchange basis. Transavia's manager isHerr P. Lauxen. J. C. s. AZTEC AIRLINE RUMOURS are circulating to the effect that Mexicana may soon acquirecontrol of Aeronaves de Mexico. This merger would result in an organization larger than the Brazilian consortium REAL, currentlyLatin America's largest airline. Here is a brief history of Mexicana. IT was on August 20, 1924, in the booming oil town of Tampico,that Compafiia Mexicana was registered as an airline. Its fleet consisted of three small Lincoln Standard biplanes and itspilots were American barnstormers. An American banker, George L. Rihl (who later became the airline's first president),possessed considerable daring and far-sighted vision in those troubled times of Mexico's "reign of terror": armed bandits wererobbing and murdering the paymasters who travelled from Tam- pico to the oilfields in the rich Hunsteca region in the Republic'snorth-eastern state of Veracruz. Rihl's idea was to fly these pay- masters to and from the oilfields. Thus was born Mexico's firstairline. Later, having acquired two Fairchild cabin monoplanes,Mexicana continued operating to the oilfields; they also began a once-weekly service between Tampico and Mexico City, takingabout four hours; today the direct flights (twice daily) take a mere one hour 20 minutes. On April 25, 1928, the MexicanGovernment awarded the company the country's first air-mail contract, and on October 15 of the same year scheduled serviceswere started between Mexico City and the capital cities of the south-eastern provinces of the Republic (Yucatan, Campeche,Tobasco and Veracruz). Before these operations could begin, a great amount of exploration, surveying and the construction oflanding-grounds had to be done, the whole cost of which had to be borne by Mexicana.At this time Pan American Airways were spreading south- wards into the Caribbean and sought a foothold in Mexico. Thisthey achieved in January 1929 by purchase of Mexicana's entire capital. Although this share was reduced to 42 per cent in 1944,a close connection has continued between the two airlines. The origin of Mexicana's present fleet is evidence of the association :eleven of their 19 DC-3s and three of their DC-4s have previously flown in PanAm colours (one of the DC-3s, XA-CAG (c/n 2228),has now logged over 30,000 hr). Mexicana's operations were extended in 1935 to Los Angelesand Lockheed Eleotras were acquired for this service. In 1942 Havana was added to the network and the fleet was strengthenedafterwards by the addition of DC-4s. Mexicana was one of the first non-U.S. carriers to purchase DC-6s and in 1954 this fleetof three was supplemented by two DC-6Bs taken over from P.AX. after the Philippine carrier abandoned long-range services. Thesetwo aircraft were soon exchanged for two PanAm DC-6s, leaving Mexicana with a standard long-range fleet. Three FairchildPackets (C-82s) were purchased in 1955 for use on freight services. These aircraft have proved most successful, and a fourth hasrecently been acquired. The latest procurement involves the acquisition last year of four DC-7Cs for operating to the U.S.The airline had hoped to receive permission to operate the Mexico City - New York service, but this went to Aeronaves deMexico, who placed Britannias on the route. Subsequently Aero- naves; in which PanAm also has a substantial shareholding, tookover Mexico's third major airline, Aerovias Guest. The next developments in Mexicana's equipment programmeare being keenly awaited by rivals and by manufacturers; there is probably no other airline of this size that has not yet ordered jets. The original 92-mile route between Tampico and Tuxpan hasnow expanded to a system covering an unduplicated network of 7,000 miles. Compared with the handful of barnstorming pilotsback in 1924, personnel today number about 3,500. Mexicana's greatest single contribution to the prosperity andeducation of Mexico must be the distribution of newspapers, within hours of their being printed in Mexico City, to every townin its network. This service is of vital importance to the manu- facturing centre of Monterray, where the Republic's heavy indus-tries are located. D. M. P. XA-DUK, with nearly 30,000 airframe hours, is among Mexicana's earliest equipment, the most recently acquired aircraft were the four DC-7Cs (lower picture) used on the trunk routes from Mexico City to Chicago and Los Angeles
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