AIRCRAFT SERVICES GROUP: 1032 First Street, Stewart International Airport, New Windsor, New York 12553, United States; Phone (201) 393-0500; Fax (914) 567-3567; Year Founded 1990. Aircraft Services Group is set up at New Windsor, New York, with two geographically separated divisions. The smallest contingent is a single Grumman G-1159 Gulfstream II stationed at Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
The principal unit is based at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey, where Vice President Jonathan Parker oversees the passenger flights made by 1 Gulfstream II, 1 Gulfstream IIB, and 1 British Aerospace BAe (HS) 125-800 Hawker executive jet.
AIRCRAFT TRANSPORT AND TRAVEL, LTD.: United Kingdom (1916-1920). On October 5, 1916, air travel protagonist George Holt Thomas of Aircraft Manufacturing Company, Ltd., registers AT & T as Britain’s first airline; initial capitalization is ?50,000. World War I prevents the start-up of flying operations; however, four days after the Armistice, November 15, 1918, RAF Major Sefton Brancker is appointed managing director and Thomas announces preparations for London-Paris service.
On February 1, 1919 at the request of the Belgian government, AT & T launches a Folkestone-Ghent air parcel service for areas of Belgium suffering acute winter difficulties. Seven RAF DH 9s (flown by RAF pilots) with AT & T fuselage stickers carry relief packages in their rear cockpits. During the spring, Brancker recruits flight personnel and assembles a fleet of 4 de Havilland DH 4s and 4 DH 9s. In March, orders are placed for DH 16s (reconfigured DH 9s), the first purely commercial aircraft to be built for carrying passengers in the U. K. following World War I.
On May 1, the Air Ministry’s Air Navigation Regulations come into force. These require all civilian aircraft to be registered, to display the allocated nationality markings and letters (G = Great Britain), and to have a certificate of airworthiness; crews are also required to possess flight certificates. The DH 9 (G-EAAA) becomes the first plane to be entered into the British Civil Aircraft Register, thus becoming the U. K.’s premier official civil and commercial airplane.
The same day, a company DH 9 (piloted by H. J. Saint with D. Greig as passenger) departs Hounslow for Bournemouth at 4:30 a. m. with a load of newspapers. This is the first civil flight under the new regulations, as well as the first from an officially appointed U. K. airport, and the first from London. The aircraft makes a forced landing on fog-shrouded Portsdown Hill at 5:30 a. m. Both of the de Havil-land’s occupants are injured in Britain’s first civil aircraft accident and the plane is wrecked.
To coincide with the Paris peace celebrations, the Air Ministry now announces that, for a week after the 14th of July, civil flights to Paris and back from the Hounslow aerodrome would be allowed. The news is carried in the London Evening News and prompts Colonel Pilkington, prominent member of a glass manufacturing family, to approach Managing Director Brancker. Following some negotiation, Brancker, whose airline has yet to publish advertisements announcing its service, agrees to a ?42 charter.
On July 15, a DH 9 piloted by Lt. Jerry Shaw, makes the Hounslow-Le Bourget charter for Colonel Pilkington the airline’s first international proving flight (now recognized as the first British commercial flight). During the summer, four new DH 16s are delivered.
A famous charter flight is made early on the morning of August 25 by a DH 4A piloted by E. H. “Bill” Lawson. One passenger (journalist George Stevenson-Reese, who pays ?21 for the honor of being first passenger) and a consignment of grouse, newspapers, leather, and Devonshire cream are carried on the 2i‘2-hour flight from Hounslow to Le Bour-get. At 12:30 p. m., a DH 16 piloted by Cyril Patterson departs Hounslow with four intrepid travelers on the world’s first regularly scheduled, daily, international commercial flight for passengers; Lawson’s DH 4A returns from Paris later in the afternoon, completing the carrier’s three-frequency inaugural day.
With a standard ?21 fare, AT & T now settles into the business of providing regular scheduled service to and from the French capital. Passengers willing to take advantage of this new service are offered complementary road transport from central London to Hounslow and from Le Bourget to downtown Paris.
On August 25, Sefton Brancker presides at the Hague as chairman of the first meeting of the International Air Traffic Association. Predecessor of today’s IATA—the International Air Transport Association— the organization is officially formed by an agreement signed on August 28. During an October 1-6 rail strike, a company DH 10 is employed to fly mail from London-Glasgow via Bristol, Birmingham, Newcastle, and Manchester; DH 9s fly mail to Paris.
On October 29, a DH 4A, en route to Hounslow from Le Bourget, loses its compass; low on fuel, it is forced to ditch in the English Channel near a small ship. Pilot Shaw and his single passenger are taken aboard and then put ashore at Weymouth to complete their journey to London the next morning by train. The company completes its 147th flight on November 1.
The company now wins the first foreign airmail route to be awarded by the British post office. Each letter will cost its sender 2 shillings 6 pence, with the shillings paid to AT & T. In preparation for the service, emergency landing fields are laid out or identified every 20 miles between London and Paris (four in England and five in France). The towns of Redhill, Tonbridge, Ashford, and Edenbridge are identified when their names are painted atop the local railroad stations.
The first British contract overseas airmail service is begun by a DH 4A (J. McMullin, pilot) on November 10. Weather forces the plane to turn back and the inaugural is actually completed to Paris the next day on the first anniversary of the Armistice. A DH 4A crash-lands at Cater-ham on December 11. Winter weather, novelty, cost, and the speed of conventional delivery conspire to delay the regularity of postal flights and the airmail service does not catch on with the public.
It is announced on March 1, 1920 that Aviation Manufacturing Company is merging with the Birmingham Small Arms Co., Ltd. The carrier’s first DH 18 (the initial de Havilland aircraft designed and built as a commercial transport) is delivered on March 5. Upon the opening of the main facilities at London Croydon Airport on March 29, AT & T operations are shifted from Hounslow.
The DH 18 prototype is placed on the Croydon-Le Bourget service on April 8. On May 17, in cooperation with the Dutch carrier KLM (Royal Dutch Airlines, N. V.), a route is extended Croydon-Amsterdam; the DH 16 with two passengers flies the first of three weekly frequencies.
The last of 8 DH 16s is delivered on June 15. The carrier’s first DH 18 is wrecked in an August 16 crash at Wallington in Surrey. On September 25, the de Havilland Aircraft Co., Ltd., is incorporated and takes over Aircraft Manufacturing Co., minus AT & T, which is in the process of being amalgamated into the Birmingham Small Arms Co., Ltd. Lack of traffic and subsidy translate into insurmountable debt by late fall. Despite a merger into the Birmingham Small Arms Company, Ltd., the pioneer is forced to cease trading on December 15. At year’s end, the remaining assets are sold to Daimler Air Hire, Ltd.
AIRCRAFTS (PTY.), LTD.: Australia (1927-1945). Aircrafts (Pty.), Ltd., is formed late in 1927. Brisbane-Toowoomba service is inaugurated in 1930. The route is extended to Stanthorpe in 1933. Employing an American-made WACO biplane, a subsidized weekly Brisbane-Cracow service is launched in 1934. On November 17, 1935, flights are started Brisbane-Bundaberg; the route is stretched to Rockhampton on May 1, 1936. Employing two de Havilland DH 84s and a DH 50A, Monto is added as a stop on the weekly Brisbane-Cracow route on October 1.
This route network is maintained 1937-1941; operations are sporadic during World War II. The company name is changed to Queensland Airlines (Pty), Ltd. in 1945; in 1947 Butler Air Transport, Ltd. assumes a 93% majority shareholding
AIRCRUISE, LTD.: United Kingdom (1963-1970). Aircruise is formed at Cranfield airfield on August 28, 1963. Air taxi operations are initiated with 1 Piper PA-23 Aztec and 1 Beech 95 Travelair. In early 1964, the company is moved to Leavesden Airport and there receives 2 new de Havilland DH 104 Dove 1s, which are employed to initiate executive charters. Three additional Dove 2s/5s are acquired during the year and also undertake on-demand work, including a contract for Rolls-Royce.
On April 26, 1965, a Dove 1 is badly damaged as the result of a forced landing at Droitwich. The financial loss forces the sale of the remaining Doves and a reduction in fleet size to small craft.
On June 26, 1968, a Piper PA-23 Aztec is lost in a crash at Brest, France. Thereafter, financial misfortune accelerates until the company is forced to close down in the spring of 1970, with only 1 Cessa 172 remaining.
AIRES (AEROVIAS DE INTEGRACION REGIONAL, S. A.): Avenida Eldorado, Entrada 1, Hangar Aires, Bogota DE, AA 44102, Colombia; Phone 57 (1) 413-9024; Fax 57 (1) 413-9610; Http://www. geocities. com/Cape Canaveral/1776/Avire. htm; Code 4C; Year Founded 1980. Privately funded, AIRES is organized at Bogota on October 2, 1980. After obtaining a fleet of 5 Embraer EMB-110P Ban-deirantes, the third-level operator inaugurates scheduled services on February 23, 1981 over a route to Ibague. A total of 69,852 passengers are flown during the first 11 months.
Over the next eight years, the carrier extends routes and services throughout the nation, although there are losses in 1985.
An EMB-110P1 with 2 crew and 15 passengers, crashes into the mountains 16 km. from Buga, Colombia, on January 23; there are no survivors.
Another EMB-110P1 with 2 crew and 14 passengers suffers an engine explosion during takeoff from Mocoa on July 3. Control is lost and the turboprop crashes into a line of trees 1,600 m. from the end of the runway; there are no fatalities.
In 1989, scheduled third-level passenger and cargo services link Aeropuerto Eldorado with such regional destinations as Cali, Florencia, Medellin, Neiva, Puerto Asis, San Vincente del Caguan, and Villa Gar-zon. President Hector Moreno Reyes maintains revenue services with a fleet that includes 3 owned and 1 leased Embraer EMB-110P1 Ban-deirantes and 1 chartered Fokker F-27F Friendship.
An order for EMB-120 Brazilias is cancelled in 1990.
Just after its arrival at Villa Garzon on December 15, an EMB-110P, with two crew and six passengers, is seized by guerrillas, who force all aboard to make a hasty exit. Before airport security guards arrive, the pirates douse the aircraft with gasoline and set it afire. The aircraft and all of the baggage aboard are burned.
In 1991, a Fairchild Hiller FH-227J is leased. This is followed by a second American-made FH-227J in 1992-1993, which reduces the number of Bandeirantes in President Moreno Reyes’ fleet to 3, as the Fokker freighter is also sold off.
The fleet is significantly increased during 1994. Through September, 2 each leased de Havilland Canada DHC-8-103s and DHC-8-301s are added and services are expanded accordingly.
While en route from Neiva to Cali on August 14, 1995, an EMB-110P with two crew and eight passengers, crashes into the volcano Nevado del Huila; there are no survivors.
The leased fleet in 1996 includes 2 each DHC-8-103s and Fairchild F-27Js, plus 3 DHC-8-301s. The 2 owned surviving Embraer EMB-110P1 Bandeirantes are also flown. In October 1997, a $14-million order is placed for a DHC-8Q-300 that is delivered in December.
Flights continue in 1998-1999.
Enplanements during the latter year total 486,000 while 300,000 FTKs are operated.
While en route from Bogota to Neiva on September 8, 2000, a DHC-8-301 with 22 passengers is taken over by a male rebel prisoner who has managed to overwhelm his three guards and get hold of a pistol. At gunpoint, the flight crew is ordered to put down at San Vicente de Caguan, a town held by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). After the man escapes, the turboprop is allow to takeoff for its original destination.
World History
