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Saa Museum
Museum in Germiston

www.saamuseum.co.za
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. Rand Airport. Germiston. Gauteng. 1419
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What you should know about Saa Museum

Aircraft in Germiston, Aviation in Germiston, Tourist in Germiston

The South African Airways Museum Society - Preserving South Africa's Civil Aviation History since 1986.

To celebrate South African Aviation by, preserving artefacts, paying tribute to the pioneering personnel who established aviation in South Africa, and telling their story. The South African Airways Museum Society is the only museum of its kind in South Africa collecting and preserving the history of the National Carrier as well as that of general civil aviation in the country. The father of civil aviation in South Africa, Major Allister Miller founded Union Airways in Port Elizabeth in 1929 after being awarded a government contract to fly airmail between Cape Town and the major centres in South Africa. Unfortunately one of the Puss Moths crashed near Sir Lowry’s Pass after structural failure, the pilot and both passengers were killed. Imperial’s airmail service from Britain to Cape Town was routed via Rand Airport and Kimberley and this made the Union Airways airmail service from Cape Town to Johannesburg unnecessary. The carriage of airmail from Durban to Johannesburg and Durban to Cape Town was contracted to Union Airways. This was a major blow to the airline and forced Miller to approach the South African government to take over the operation. During the Junkers delivery period SAA were short of aircraft to service all the new and proposed routes, and the three SAAF Envoys were converted to passenger layout and used to supplement the fleet. When Junkers Ju 86 aircraft were delivered all the Envoys (including the four from SAA) were returned to the SAAF, the aircraft had proved unsuitable for the SAA passenger and cargo services. After war broke out all SAA staff and aircraft were transferred to the SAAF. During the conflict new airports were planned for Durban, Cape Town and an international airport at Johannesburg. The construction of the airport at Johannesburg would take several years to complete. British Overseas Airways Corporation planned to operate their service with Avro York aircraft; some of which were leased to SAA to operate the reciprocal service. At first a weekly service was operated and as the demand for seats increased more services were introduced until finally six services per week were flown. The other opinion was that the sleeve-valve engines were troublesome and the aircraft had the habit of tipping over on its nose. The Constellation proved popular with its passengers offering a mostly smooth comfortable journey, with forty-six passengers being carried. On the same date Tourist Class travel was introduced using a fifty-eight seat Constellation on the London route, SAA operated two Comet and three Constellation services per week on the Springbok service. The aircraft was fitted with large oval windows that afforded an excellent view. The turbine engines were vibration free and the aircraft was very reliable and profitable. The Boeing 707 also brought in the new airline colours, the main difference was the orange tail with a blue and white flash, when repainting was required the other aircraft in the fleet were all converted to the new orange tails. The 1960’s saw great expansion of the airline, faster aircraft could carry more passengers further. In 1976 Boeing 747SP aircraft were introduced and to demonstrate its very long-range capability the first aircraft was flown non-stop from the Boeing Company factory in Seattle to Cape Town during its delivery flight. The aircraft were used on destinations with high cargo demand and lower passenger numbers. SAA began taking delivery of Airbus A320 aircraft for use on the internal and regional services.
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