Today, hundreds of planes cross the Atlantic every day, but less than eighty years ago, the airspace between Europe and the United States was much calmer. That slowly changed from 21 May 1946, when KLM started from Schiphol as the first European airline with a regular service between Europe and the US.
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video-caption">First flight from Schiphol to New York – NH Nieuws
After Albert Plesman was appointed CEO of KLM after the war, he traveled to the United States to lobby for a transatlantic scheduled service. What major airlines such as Air France and BOAC – the predecessor of British Airways – had not yet succeeded in doing, KLM did. KLM received permission from the US to commute between Schiphol and New York.
Refuel
In addition to the crew, there were 32 passengers on board the first flight, including the mayors of Amsterdam and Rotterdam. After the DC-4-1009 had left the Netherlands at IJmuiden, two stops had to be made to refuel: once in Scotland (Prestwick) and once in the US (Newfoundland, Gander).
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Summer Tour: Soul of the Region🌞
This story is part of the NH Nieuws ‘Summer tour: soul of the region’. In this series of ten episodes, presenter Koen Bugter visits the various regions in North Holland. Together with the regional reporters from NH Nieuws and various guests, he goes in search of the soul of the region.
Today Koen Bugter settles down in Haarlemmermeer. Can be seen on our TV channel from 5.10 pm, but can already be seen via this link.
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A few test flights had been carried out beforehand, and the first flight with passengers also went smoothly. This is apparent from the report of captain Evert van Dijk, which he recorded a month after that flight in 1946 and sent to the director of the Rijksluchtvaartdienst.
Exciting landing
“The flight proceeded in a completely normal and pleasant way, the mood on board was excellent throughout the journey,” he said Aviation news earlier from the letter. The landing was the most exciting, because during the landing there appeared to be an American Airlines aircraft on the runway.
“This was at the time when we had almost reached the ground with blows and wheels off, so that restarting would have involved a lot of risk,” Van Dijk wrote. Finally, the flight arrived in New York 25.5 hours after departure.
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