Aquila Airways
Encyclopedia
Southampton
Southampton is the largest city in the county of Hampshire on the south coast of England, and is situated south-west of London and north-west of Portsmouth. Southampton is a major port and the closest city to the New Forest...
, Hampshire
Hampshire
Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...
based British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
independentindependent from government-owned corporation
Government-owned corporation
A government-owned corporation, state-owned company, state-owned entity, state enterprise, publicly owned corporation, government business enterprise, or parastatal is a legal entity created by a government to undertake commercial activities on behalf of an owner government...
s airline, formed on 18 May 1948.
Early operations
Aquila was founded by Barry Aikman, initially using two converted Royal Air ForceRoyal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
Short Sunderland
Short Sunderland
The Short S.25 Sunderland was a British flying boat patrol bomber developed for the Royal Air Force by Short Brothers. It took its service name from the town and port of Sunderland in northeast England....
flying boat
Flying boat
A flying boat is a fixed-winged seaplane with a hull, allowing it to land on water. It differs from a float plane as it uses a purpose-designed fuselage which can float, granting the aircraft buoyancy. Flying boats may be stabilized by under-wing floats or by wing-like projections from the fuselage...
s, ex-British Overseas Airways Corporation
British Overseas Airways Corporation
The British Overseas Airways Corporation was the British state airline from 1939 until 1946 and the long-haul British state airline from 1946 to 1974. The company started life with a merger between Imperial Airways Ltd. and British Airways Ltd...
(BOAC), for freight work. During the Berlin Airlift a further 10 Sunderland 3s were acquired, and these flew a total of 265 supply missions during 1948/49 from Finkenwerder
Finkenwerder
Finkenwerder is a quarter of Hamburg, Germany in the borough Hamburg-Mitte. It is the location of a plant of Airbus and its airport...
on the river Elbe
Elbe
The Elbe is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Krkonoše Mountains of the northwestern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia , then Germany and flowing into the North Sea at Cuxhaven, 110 km northwest of Hamburg...
to river Havel
Havel
The Havel is a river in north-eastern Germany, flowing through the German states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Brandenburg, Berlin and Saxony-Anhalt. It is a right tributary of the Elbe river and in length...
on the outskirts of Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
.
Operations during 1949/51
Aquila obtained an association agreement with British European Airways
British European Airways
British European Airways or British European Airways Corporation was a British airline which existed from 1946 until 1974. The airline operated European and North African routes from airports around the United Kingdom...
(BEA) under which they were permitted to operate scheduled services from Southampton
Southampton
Southampton is the largest city in the county of Hampshire on the south coast of England, and is situated south-west of London and north-west of Portsmouth. Southampton is a major port and the closest city to the New Forest...
to Lisbon
Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
and Madeira
Madeira
Madeira is a Portuguese archipelago that lies between and , just under 400 km north of Tenerife, Canary Islands, in the north Atlantic Ocean and an outermost region of the European Union...
. These flight were supplemented by charter flights to a wide variety of destinations. June 1949 brought a series of Sunderland 3 flights with holidaymakers from Falmouth
Falmouth, Cornwall
Falmouth is a town, civil parish and port on the River Fal on the south coast of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It has a total resident population of 21,635.Falmouth is the terminus of the A39, which begins some 200 miles away in Bath, Somerset....
, Cornwall
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...
to the Isles of Scilly
Isles of Scilly
The Isles of Scilly form an archipelago off the southwestern tip of the Cornish peninsula of Great Britain. The islands have had a unitary authority council since 1890, and are separate from the Cornwall unitary authority, but some services are combined with Cornwall and the islands are still part...
. Other 1949 charters included seamen from Aden
Aden
Aden is a seaport city in Yemen, located by the eastern approach to the Red Sea , some 170 kilometres east of Bab-el-Mandeb. Its population is approximately 800,000. Aden's ancient, natural harbour lies in the crater of an extinct volcano which now forms a peninsula, joined to the mainland by a...
to the UK and from Hull
Kingston upon Hull
Kingston upon Hull , usually referred to as Hull, is a city and unitary authority area in the ceremonial county of the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It stands on the River Hull at its junction with the Humber estuary, 25 miles inland from the North Sea. Hull has a resident population of...
to Helsinki
Helsinki
Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...
.
The popular Madeira service continued in 1950/51 and was joined by a Southampton to Jersey
Jersey
Jersey, officially the Bailiwick of Jersey is a British Crown Dependency off the coast of Normandy, France. As well as the island of Jersey itself, the bailiwick includes two groups of small islands that are no longer permanently inhabited, the Minquiers and Écréhous, and the Pierres de Lecq and...
service from 7 July 1950, which used St Aubins Bay
Saint Aubin, Jersey
Saint Aubin is a port in the Channel Island of Jersey. It opens out to a bay of the Gulf of Saint-Malo.Originally a fishing village at the opposite end of Saint Aubin's Bay from the town of Saint Helier, Saint Aubin is now the hub of the parish of St. Brelade. Its name refers to Saint Aubin of...
to land its passengers. Charter flights for shipping firms were also carried out.
1952 operations
Short Solent
- External links :* * *...
s were acquired second hand. The airline continued to operate schedules to Madeira and the Canary Islands
Canary Islands
The Canary Islands , also known as the Canaries , is a Spanish archipelago located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara. The Canaries are a Spanish autonomous community and an outermost region of the European Union...
with the newly acquired aircraft.
In 1954 the British Aviation Services
British Aviation Services
British Aviation Services Limited was an early post-World War II airline holding company and air transport operator that could trace its roots back to 1946. Its main activities included trooping, inclusive tour and worldwide passenger and freight charter services...
Group took control of Aquila Airways, the last commercial flying boat
Flying boat
A flying boat is a fixed-winged seaplane with a hull, allowing it to land on water. It differs from a float plane as it uses a purpose-designed fuselage which can float, granting the aircraft buoyancy. Flying boats may be stabilized by under-wing floats or by wing-like projections from the fuselage...
operator in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
.
During the later 1950s, Aquila Airways faced increasing competition from land based aircraft and being unable to obtain replacement flying boats (offers to purchase the prototype Princess
Saunders-Roe Princess
-See also:-Bibliography:* Bridgman, Leonard. Jane's All The World's Aircraft 1952-53. London: Jane's, 1953.* . Flight, 6 July 1951. pp. 10–11.* Flight, 16 March 1950, pp. 344–345....
flying boats having been rebuffed), the company ceased operations in 1958. This left TEAL
TEAL
Tasman Empire Airways Limited was the forerunner of Air New Zealand. It was first registered in Wellington as a limited liability company on 26 April 1940....
as the only long range flying boat passenger airline.
Aircraft operated
- Short Sandringham IShort Sandringham- External links :* -See also:-References:NotesBibliography* Jackson, A.J British Civil Aircraft since 1919 - Volume Three. London: Putnam & Company Ltd, 1974. ISBN 0-370-10014-X....
- Short Solent 2Short Solent- External links :* * *...
- Short Solent 3Short Solent- External links :* * *...
- Short Solent 4Short Solent- External links :* * *...
- Short Sunderland 3Short SunderlandThe Short S.25 Sunderland was a British flying boat patrol bomber developed for the Royal Air Force by Short Brothers. It took its service name from the town and port of Sunderland in northeast England....
Incidents and accidents
Sunderland 3 'Hythe' class G-AGKY was damaged during takeoff and subsequently capsized and sank at CalshotCalshot
Calshot is a coastal village in Hampshire, England at the west corner of Southampton_Water where it joins the Solent. A settlement at the site is believed to have existed since the fifth century AD...
on 28 January 1953 without injuries to its occupants.
Short Solent G-AKNU
1957 Aquila Airways Solent crash
The 1957 Aquila Airways Solent crash was a 15 November 1957 aircraft accident on the Isle of Wight. With 45 lives lost, at the time it was the second worst crash within the United Kingdom.-Accident sequence:...
crashed into Chessell
Chessell
Chessell is a hamlet on the Isle of Wight towards the west in an area known as the Back of the Wight on the B3401 road. Public transport was previously provided by Southern Vectis on route 11. It is also home to the Chessell Pottery Barns. which are a popular tourist attraction.-External links:*...
Down, Isle of Wight
Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight is a county and the largest island of England, located in the English Channel, on average about 2–4 miles off the south coast of the county of Hampshire, separated from the mainland by a strait called the Solent...
on 15 November 1957, killing 45 out of the 58 on board.