In celebration of KLM’s 95th anniversary; founded October 7, 1919.
Not the world’s first airline — that distinction goes to the Zeppelin airline DELAG which began passenger service in 1909 — but the world’s oldest operating airline company.
Happy 95th to the Vliegende Hollander.
Air France introduced its “Golden Parisian” service in 1953, using a Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation (F-BGNI) that could fly nonstop between New York and Paris in just 12 hours. [click to continue…]
Fw 200 Condor in New York, 1938
On August 10-11, 1938, a Lufthansa Focke-Wulf 200 Condor airliner made a record-breaking nonstop flight across the Atlantic from Berlin to Floyd Bennett field in Brooklyn, New York. [click to continue…]
The Boeing 24 might be called the first modern airliner. It was the first all-metal airliner in America and featured many airliner firsts, including retractable landing gear, supercharged engines, de-icing boots, trim tabs, soundproofing, and cowled engines streamlined into nacelles in the wing. [click to continue…]
The first airliner to make scheduled passenger flights between Europe and the America was not an airplane but the German zeppelin Hindenburg, which made 34 scheduled trips across the Atlantic in 1936. [click to continue…]
Heinrich Kubis
In March, 1912, Heinrich Kubis became the first flight attendant in history when he began taking care of passengers and serving meals on the German airline DELAG.
Kubis began working as an air steward one month before the sinking of the Titanic, and more than 18 years before Ellen Church became the world’s first stewardess on May 15, 1930.
Dining Room of Boeing Clipper
Pan Am Clipper flying boats were the first true intercontinental passenger airplanes; they crossed the Atlantic and Pacific and circled Latin America in the 1930’s and 1940’s.
Air France began operating six Breguet 393T biplanes between Toulouse and Casablanca in 1934, on the first leg of the Air France service to South America.
Passengers: 10
Pilots: 2
Max. speed 249 km/h
Cruise speed 235 km/h
Wingspan 20.60 m
Length 14.76 m
Range 975 km
Take-off weight: 6,000 kg
Engines: 3 x Gnome-Rhone 7Kd Titan Major radial, 261kW
Perhaps the most famous flying boat of all time, Pan American’s China Clipper was one of three Martin M-130’s operated by Pan Am. It made the first scheduled air mail flight across the Pacific in November, 1935.
