Quote: "One of the first flights into Port Elizabeth took place in 1917 when Major Allister Miller, the `prophet' of civil aviation in this country, who later went on to establish Union Airways, made his inaugural flight between Cape Town and the Eastern Cape city.
However, Port Elizabeth's airport - just 10 minutes from everywhere in PE, as locals like to remind visitors - dates from the commencement of Union Airways in 1929 and the first regular mail and passenger service between Cape Town and Port Elizabeth. Officially the city's airport was commissioned in 1936 with a single runway, a hangar and a concrete apron.
During World War 2 the airfield was extended to accommodate the 42nd Air School Royal Air Force and 6 Squadron South African Air Force on the southern and eastern perimeters of the field, while commercial operations continued from the northern side. After the war the SAAF continued to operate an Air Force Base on this location and in 1954 Port Elizabeth experienced its first jet aircraft arrival when five De Havilland Vampire FB9s landed.
Just prior to this, in 1950, construction of the terminal buildings, runways and air traffic control tower began, with the commercial operation moving temporarily to an airfield at St Albans, about 25 km from the city centre. Once completed in 1955, the Port Elizabeth terminal was official reopened and in 1973 the apron extended to accommodate larger aircraft with a new departures terminal being built and commissioned in 1980......"
Picture Source and Quote
Sponsored Supplement
Friday 10 September 2008
The Star
42 Flight School
Port Elizabeth
Picture Source
Book Title
Port Elizabeth
page 222
Margaret Harraldine
Fighter pilots of the Royal Air Force at Hawkinge in Kent England
Picture Source
This England
Page 36
