Newspaper article published in The Star of 3 May 1952 regarding the world's first commercial jet flight which took place from London to Palmietfontein Airport in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Palmietfontein Airport was a wartime air force base which was converted to a temporary airport to serve Johannesburg whilst the new airport, Jan Smuts Airport (now O. R. Tambo International Airport), was being built. The airport serving Johannesburg at the time, Rand Airport, was unable to accommodate the size of aircraft to be operated on a new service to Great Britain. In 1948, South African Airways moved its terminal to Palmietfontein Airport.
Several historical flights terminated at Palmietfontein Airport. A Qantas Airways Avro Lancastrian completed an unprecedented flight from Sydney's Kingsford Smith Airport in Australia to Palmietfontein, landing on 20 November 1948 at 15h15, and having been in the air a total of 41 hours and 52 minutes at an average speed of 210 mph (180 kn; 340 km/h). En-route stops were made at Perth, Cocos Islands and Mauritius. The objective, to establish viable air links between South Africa and Australia, had been accomplished.
The world's first passenger jet service took place on 3 May 1952 when a BOACde Havilland Comet 1 landed at Palmietfontein on a flight from the UK.[1]
Airport layout
Airport layout circa. 1950
There were three runways, the relative positions of which formed a triangle. Runway 17/35 was the longest, being 1,800 m long (6,000 ft) and 55 m wide (180 ft). Runway 04/22 was 1,400 m in length (4,500 ft) and runway 13/31 was 1,510 m long (4,950 ft). Both 17/35 and 04/22 were tarred; 13/31 was grass. The apron and control tower were situated to the west of runway 04/22. The airport elevation was given as 1,557 m (5,107 ft). The information is derived from an old map and airport layout diagram courtesy of E. Du Plessis.[2][3]
Aircraft types that operated to and from Palmietfontein
On 5 January 1948, a Lockheed 18-08-01 Lodestar, ZS-ASW, was damaged beyond repair when it struck a water drain after running off the runway during the landing rollout.[5]
On 15 September 1952, a South African AirwaysDouglas C-47A-30-DL(DC-3) ZS-AVI with 19 occupants was written off when they landed at Carolina after becoming lost on a flight from Livingstone, Zambia to Palmietfontein. The landing occurred at night and the strip was unlighted. There were no fatalities.[7]
Palmietfontein today
Palmietfontein was transformed into a motor racing circuit for the 1956 Rand Grand Prix, which was won by Peter Whitehead.[8] The township of Katlehong was eventually established on the site, although parts of the original runway are still visible on Google Maps to this day. The coordinates of the site is as follow: 26° 20' 7.20" S, 28° 08' 28.80" E.
References
^"Huge Crowd To Greet Comet on Rand". The Star. Johannesburg Public Library. 3 May 1952.
