Aviation Memorabilia Newsletter

Border Cities Aero Club, Windsor, Ontario.

In 1920, two years after the end of the “war to end all wars,” a local group of Royal Air Force veterans formed the Border Cities Aero Club in remembrance of their wartime service.

This association was the first and oldest group in Canada to be granted a charter as a member of the Royal Canadian Flying Clubs Association.

Here we have this photo of a Border Cities Aero Club moth aircraft in November 1930 being loaded with newspapers which travel to London, Ontario in 70 minutes.

(Source: The Windsor Star)

In 1946 British Commonwealth Pacific Airlines (BCPA), the joint Australian (50%), New Zealand (30%), British (20%) government-owned airline, based in Sydney, established the first Trans-Pacific route between the South Pacific and North America.

When service started in 1946, BCPA had no aircraft that could operate the route so they chartered DC-4s from privately-owned domestic carrier Australian National Airways (ANA), pending delivery of BCPA's own DC-6s in 1948.

The BCPA routes to HNL/SFO/YVR, initially operated for BCPA by chartered ANA aircraft (in ANA livery) were later transferred to Qantas when BCPA was shut down in 1953.

 Ken Pickford

Japan Airlines is investing $10 million into Boom Aircraft, the Denver-based startup promising to bring back supersonic air travel. The deal includes options for 20 aircraft.

The Boom passenger jet, according to the company’s target specs, will fly for 4,500 NM between refueling stops—just enough to carry 55 passengers on the 4,452-NM trip from Tokyo Narita International to San Francisco International at Mach 2.2.

Boom hopes to fly its one-third scale technical demonstrator next year at subsonic speeds before moving into supersonic testing on the Edwards Air Force Base test range.

(Source: AVwebFlash December 5, 2017)