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Compagnie Ostendaise de Traveaux et Transport – Aero-Maritimes – Aeromar (1925-1926)

By: Rob Mulder For: www.europeanairlines.no At the end of the Great War (1914-1918) Belgium was one of the victorious countries. The German aircraft factory Junkers Flugzeugwerk AG (Jfa) saw therefore no interest in selling it German manufactured aircraft to this country. But in the middle of the twenties of the last century an French born Belgian entered the offices of Jfa and asked for an aeroplane… The author would be interested to know the exact date of foundation of Aeromar and the stock capital and stockholders of the company. If anyone has newspaper articles from that time we would be...

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Smaller airlines companies in Austria (1918-1938)

By: Rob Mulder For: www.europeanairlines.no This article is about the history of smaller airline companies in Austria in the period 1918-1938. The history of the main airline company, Österreichische Luftverkehrs AG – ÖLAG, will be described in a future article. Unfortunately we have no pictures about the airline companies mentioned below, so if anyone can supply copyright free pictures we would be interested to publish them. Introduction Together with France, Germany and the United Kingdom, the Austrian-Hungarian Empire was among the dominating Empires in Europe, if not in the world. The Empire was established by Rudolf IV (King from 1358-1365)....

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The Birth of Air Transport

By: Rob Mulder For: www.europeanairlines.no The informative and unfortunately short-lived aviation magazine “The Putnam Aeronautical Review” published in its issue of October 1989 an article from the hand of John Stroud. In this article he deals with the question that was first to open an air service and which qualifications were made in order to establish who was first. We would like to extend the information to the readers by adding a detailed review over all European countries and which airline company was the first in that country. Qualification explained But first of all we would like to repeat some...

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The “Junkers Spitzbergen Expedition” (1923)

By: Rob Mulder For: www.europeanairlines.no In 1923 Roald Amundsen attempted to fly from Wainwright, Alaska (USA) across the North Pole to the islands of Spitsbergen. Amundsen’s friend Consul Haakon Hammar and Junkers propaganda director Friedrich Andreas Fischer von Poturzyn organised a relief party to help in case Amundsen’s aircraft would not complete the flight. But Roald Amundsen had to cancel the flight due to problems with the Junkers JL-6. Roald Amundsens failed polar flight In the USA the Junkers Larsen JL-6 had proven itself on numerous long distance flights, among them one in October 1920 from New York to Los...

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In the air with Roald Amundsen

By: Rob Mulder For: www.europeanairlines.no In the article “In the air with Roald Amundsen” we would like to introduce the readers to the kites, aircraft and airships the famous Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen used for his expeditions during the first thirty years of the last century. Roald Amundsen purchased a number of aircraft and flying boats, but was also successful with a rigid airship of an Italian manufacturer. Roald Amundsen (1872-1928) The first aviation event in Norway was the landing of a French air balloon in 1870. The Frenchmen Paul Rolier and Leon Bézier took off from the besieged city...

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LFG V 13 and V 130 Strela in Norway

By: Rob Mulder For: www.europeanairlines.no During the Twenties and Thirties of the last century Norwegian pilots imported numerous German and later English aircraft. Among one of the most popular aircraft were the seaplanes from the German aircraft factory Luft-Fahrzeug-Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung – LFG from Stralsund-Seddin. Especially the V 13/V 130 turned out to be a popular aircraft in Norway and here we are looking a little bit closer to the aircraft used. Luft-Fahrzeug Gesellschaft mbH On 30 April 1908 the LFG-company was founded with the help of the Motorluftschiff-Studiengesellschaft, Berlin (the Motorized Air Ship Study company). Co-owner was the...

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The history of a Norwegian Sikorsky S.43

By: Rob Mulder For: www.europeanairlines.no In May 2010, Rob J M Mulder published a book about this amphibian. The below mentioned article is just a fraction from the material he has gathered. The book is available through the webshop for jst NOK 150 / Euro 19 + postage. Norwegian text, but insert with English text offered free of charge. In the French magazine “Fana de l’Aviation” No. 204 Bernard Millot wrote about the Sikorsky S.43: “Le plus bel hydravion du monde en 1935” – the most beautiful seaplane of the world in 1935. And right he was. The S-43 was...

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The first airlines in Norway (1912-1920)

By: Rob Mulder For: www.europeanairlines.no In another article on this website we have describe one of the most active airline companies of Norway: A/S Aero. But the first airline company registered in Norway was A/S Norsk Flyveselskap of 1912. It was after the Great War joined by Det Norske Luftfartsrederi A/S – DNL. This company was formed as early as March 1918 with a huge stock capital of 3.3 million Norwegian Kroner. It wanted to be the national airline company of Norway, but failed due to Government support and a weak Norwegian post-War economy. In addition there were some other...

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Thor Solberg and his expeditions

By: Rob Mulder For: www.europeanairlines.no After a successful flying career in the United States of America, Thor Solberg had only one dream left: Flying from the USA to Norway in the footsteps of the Norwegian Viking explorer “Leiv Eiriksson”. He made a first attempt in 1932 but had to abort it and he had to wait until 1935 before he could resume his flight. Upon arrival in Norway he formed an airline company and started with taxi- joy ride and charter flights. At the beginning of the Second World War he stored his aircraft and resumed business as soon as...

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Tancred Ibsen and A/S Aero

By: Rob Mulder For: www.europeanairlines.no In Norwegian history 1978 was marked by two events: First of all I met my wife and secondly the death of the grandson of the famous Norwegian writer Henrik Ibsen: Tancred Ibsen. Big deal…was it not for his fantastic career in the world of movies! Movies? - You will ask: “What does this has to do with aviation?” Nothing would my answer be, but in fact he started his career in the world of aviation. He was to form the first active airline company in Norway: A/S Aero. The start of his life Tancred Ibsen...

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