Sunday, June 9, 2013

Classic Aircraft 05/2013

Bournemouth International Airport has had its moments of fame and glory, some of them unscripted. It was here, on I I February 2006, at the end of the longest ever nonstop flight, that Steve Fossett landed the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer rather precipitately when a generator failure prevented him from reaching Kent International (Manston). Had the worlds press linked the site to the name of Hum Airport they would have discovered another record. It was there that an American Export Airlines DC-4 landed on 24 October 1945 at the end of the first ever regular scheduled landplane trans-Atlantic flight, a journey of 14hr 5min. Steve Fossett was aloft, alone, for 76hr 45min hours, but both achievements serve to place Bournemouth Airport in a distinguished niche in aviation history. The Bournemouth area has had close links with aviation since the early days of flying, but it took years to create the airfield that later became today's airport. Only in August 1941 was RAF Hum able to take its first aircraft, but, in parallel, long before the war ended, Hum became one of Britain's principal long-haul airports.

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