Hashtag: #AviationHistory
British Airways Marks Its Centenary
British Airways marks its centenary today [Aug 25] and two historic flights to Bermuda are being commemorated as the airline celebrates one hundred years of service. . The modern air carrier was formed in the 1970s when the British Overseas Airways Corporation [BOAC], established in 1939, merged with British European Airways [BEA], founded in 1946. However,... Read more of this article
WHM: Bermudian Pilot Emily Siggins Flying High
[Part of Women’s History Month Series] With Bermudians only a micro-fraction of the more than 7 billion people in the world and female pilots making up less than 7% of all airline pilots worldwide, Bermudian pilot Emily Siggins holds a unique place in the aviation world. She wanted to be a pilot since she was only 4 years old and after undergoing... Read more of this article
Photos, Video: British Airways Heritage Collection
[Written by Don Burgess] British Airways has come a long ways after four small airlines merged to form Imperial Airways limited on March 31, 1924. In the 92 years since then, one man has seen most of the changes the airline has made. Keith Hayward joined the company as a traffic apprentice in 1945 and has witnessed much of the history the airline has... Read more of this article
BAS Group Report Earnings Of $2.8 Million
Bermuda Aviation Services Limited announced net earnings attributable to shareholders of $2.8 million for the year ended March 31, 2016. This compares to net income of $471,000 for the corresponding period in 2015. “The Group has posted total consolidated net revenues of $39.4 million, down from $40 million in the prior year. Gross profit is $15.5... Read more of this article
Travel Ad: Can’t Get To Bermuda On Pogo Stick
In what could described as a case of stating the obvious, an airline once marketed its Bermuda route with an advertisement proclaiming that you cannot get to Bermuda on a pogo stick, suggesting that the “hop” they provided was a better option. Colonial Airlines was a passenger airline that flew between the American east coast and Canada during the... Read more of this article
Aviation Pioneer Geraldine Mock Dies At 88
Geraldine “Jerrie” Mock — the first woman to fly solo around the world — has died at the age of 88, some 50 years after her history making journey, which included a stop in Bermuda. Mrs. Mock flew a single engine Cessna 180 christened the Spirit of Columbus, which was affectionately dubbed “Charlie,” and jointly owned... Read more of this article
50th Anniversary Of Record Setting Solo Flight
Today [Apr 17] marks the anniversary of a pioneering around-the-world trip taken by pilot Geraldine Mock, leading her to set several records, with a stop in Bermuda linking her grand achievement to the island. Geraldine “Jerrie” Mock was the first woman to fly solo around the world, a journey she completed 50 years ago today. Mrs. Mock flew... Read more of this article
Bermuda Airline Disaster Inspired Spy Novel
Partially set on the island, Bermuda resident F. Van Wyck Mason’s 1958 spy novel “The Gracious Lily Affair” was inspired by the worst aviation disaster in local history. On December 6, 1952 when “Star of the East” — a Douglas DC-4 operated by Pan American World Airways’ Cuban affiliate Cubana de Aviación —... Read more of this article
Bermuda’s First Air Mail Delivered By Airship
The first air mail to and from Bermuda was carried aboard an airship — the 656-foot USS “Los Angeles” which visited the island twice in 1925. A 2,472,000 cubic foot rigid airship, the “Los Angeles” was built at Friedrichshafen, Germany. Her construction was partially funded by German World War I [1914-1918] reparations... Read more of this article
“Mystery Airship” Which Panicked Bermuda
A quite literal unidentified flying object panicked Bermuda when it crossed over the island in 1885 in a mysterious episode which remains unexplained to this day. On August 27, 1885, at about 8:30 a. m., Mrs. Adelina D. Bassett observed “a strange object in the clouds, coming from the north.” A contemporary report reads: “She called... Read more of this article
“Peter Pan” Star Winged Her Way To Bermuda
Broadway star Mary Martin was perhaps best known for soaring over theatre audiences when she played the title role in “Peter Pan” — but off-stage she was renowned for winging to Bermuda every time her schedule allowed. The Texas-born theatrical sensation first appeared on Broadway in Rodgers & Hammerstein’s “South Pacific”,... Read more of this article
Close Encounters Of The Bermuda Kind
A 1953 flying saucer alert in Bermuda when US President Dwight D. Eisenhower, British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill and French Premier Joseph Laniel were preparing to meet at the Mid Ocean Club was laughed off by security personnel — who said any visiting aliens would be turned away from the exclusive Tucker’s Town property if they... Read more of this article
Winston Churchill’s 1942 Flying Bermuda Visit
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s return to the UK from Bermuda aboard Boeing flying boat in January, 1942 — the first transatlantic air trip by a world leader — fired the imaginations not only of his devoted countrymen but of the entire democratic world. People reading of his long flight from Bermuda and safe landing at... Read more of this article
History: The Golden Age Of Bermuda Clippers
It’s been called the Golden Age of aviation, the pre-World War Two period when American vacationers arrived in Bermuda aboard opulently appointed flying boats providing comfort and style which rivalled that of any of the luxury ocean liners of the day. Pan American’s majestic fleet of flying boats — the “Clippers”, named... Read more of this article
History: ‘The Unsinkable’ Edna Watson
She was Bermuda’s answer to the “Unsinkable” Molly Brown — and like that heroine of the “Titanic” sinking, Edna Watson demonstrated gallantry and indefatigable determination when a Bermuda-bound aircraft she was aboard crashed in the chilly North Atlantic in 1939. Born in Montreal but a Bermuda resident for most of... Read more of this article
Airmail Delivery In St. George’s Harbour
It’s perhaps the only bag of airmail ever delivered to the St. George’s Post Office which arrived there by way of the Old Town’s harbour. When the “Graf Zeppelin” passed directly over St. George’s on its first trial transatlantic crossing from Germany to New York in October, 1928, the 776-foot dirigible left more... Read more of this article
