Description:
Avianca. We continue doing our service, we continue being committed to do it.
The first commercial airline to be founded in the American continent, and the second one in the world.
Avianca was the first commercial airline to be founded in the Americas, and the second one in the world. Its creation was the result of the ingenuity and adventurous spirit of Germans Werner Kaemerer, Stuart Hosie and Alberto Tietjen, and Colombians Ernesto Cortizzos (the first President of the airline) Rafael Palacio, Cristóbal Restrepo, Jacobo Correa and Aristides Noguera.
These visionaries and dreamers founded the Sociedad Colombo-Alemana de Transporte Aéreo, SCADTA (Colombian-German Society for Air Transportation) on December 5th, 1919, in Barranquilla (Colombia).
The company performed its first flight between Barranquilla and the nearby town of Puerto Colombia, aboard a Junker F-13, which also carried 57 letters. The flight was conducted by German pilot Helmuth Von Krohn.
This Junker F-13 and another one of the same type made up the first fleet of the airline: they were low-winged monoplanes, completely metallic, and their engines had to be modified to operate efficiently under the weather conditions of Colombia. They were 9.50 meters long and 3.5 meters high. Their flying capacity was 850 kilometers, and they could carry up to four passengers, besides the two members of the crew.
Due to the topography of the country, the Junkers were fitted with two floats which allowed them to land on the rivers, near the different towns. Thus, on October 20th, 1919, following the course of the Magdalena river, Helmuth Von Krohn carried out the first flight to central Colombia. It took eight hours, including four emergency landings.
Sharing the same vision as the founding group, Peter Von Bauer, a German scientist and philantropist, got interested in SCADTA, and he provided his knowledge and funds, as well as another plane to the Company. He also managed to get from the Government, a concession for SCADTA to take on the transportation of the country?s mail, which gave it its final push for take off.
By the mid 20s, after many natural drawbacks had been overcome, SCADTA opened the international routes, which initially covered destinations in Venezuela and the United States.
Unfortunately, in the same decade, more precisely in 1924, the plane carrying Ernesto Cortizzos and Von Krohn, among others, crashed in the area which is known today as Bocas de Ceniza, which resulted in the death of its occupants.
Due to the situation arising from World War II, Mr. Von Bauer, a Colombian-German citizen, had to sell his SCADTA shares to Pan American, the American airline.
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