British Overseas Airways Corporation
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The British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) was the British state airline from 1939 until 1946 and the long-haul British state airline from 1946. The company started life with a merger between Imperial Airways and British Airways Ltd. BOAC was merged with British European Airways in 1974 to form British Airways, following an Act of Parliament in 1971.
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[edit] History
During the 1930s, 1940s and until November 1950 Imperial Airways and then BOAC operated flying boat services from Southampton to colonial possessions in Africa and Asia. Aeroplanes such as the Short Empire and Short S.8 Calcutta flying boat, transport passengers and mail. BOAC also operated the Handley Page HP42 airliner for service through Europe and the Empire routes to India and South Africa.
As well as training pilots in the UK, BOAC operated a tropical training school in Soroti, North East Uganda.
[edit] The breakup
The Civil Aviation Act of 1946 lead to the demerger of two divisions of BOAC to form three separate corporations:
- BOAC - for Empire, North American and Far East routes
- British European Airways (BEA) - for European and domestic routes
- British South American Airways (BSAA) - for South American and Caribbean routes
In July 1949, British South America Airways was merged back into BOAC.
[edit] Introduction of jets
In May 1952, BOAC became the first airline to introduce a passenger jet, the de Havilland Comet. All Comet 1 aircraft were grounded in April 1954 after four Comets crashed, the last two being BOAC aircraft in 1954. Investigating those incidents, investigators discovered serious structural cracks caused by metal fatigue due to the repeated pressurization and depressurization of the aircraft as they ascended and descended. While rectifying this problem, de Havilland engineers improved the Comet in many ways and improved its range, creating the Series 4. In 1958, BOAC used the new Comets to become the first airline to fly jet passenger services across the Atlantic.
In 1956, BOAC ordered 15 Boeing 707s. This caused a political row in England (since Boeing is an American company), eventually resulting in the company being ordered to purchase the Vickers VC-10 instead. However the VC-10 had somewhat higher operating costs than the 707, largely as a result of BOAC's own demands for the aircraft to have excellent "hot and high" performance. In the end both aircraft entered service with BOAC, adding an additional 17 stretched Super VC-10s.
BOAC later became the largest Boeing customer outside North America. The next major order of Boeing aircraft was for 11 747-100s. BOAC received its first 747 on April 22, 1970 but due to strike action by the British Air Line Pilots Association the aircraft did not enter commercial service for almost a year, on April 14, 1971.
In 1962, BOAC and Cunard formed BOAC-Cunard Ltd to operate scheduled services to North America, the Caribbean and South America. The operation was dissolved in 1966.
[edit] Dissolution
On September 1, 1972, the British Airways Board was formed, a holding board that controlled BOAC and BEA. On March 31, 1974, both the BOAC and BEA were dissolved and their operations merged to form British Airways.
BOAC would have become one of the first operators of the Concorde had it not merged to become British Airways. BA's Concordes carried registrations of G-BOAA through G-BOAG.
[edit] Incidents
- Flight 777, 1943 June 01, shot down over the Bay of Biscay by German Junkers Ju 88s. All seventeen crew and passengers were killed, including actor Leslie Howard.[1] There has been widespread speculation that the downing was an attempt to kill British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.[2]
- Flight 781, (Mediterranean Sea, near Elba, January 10, 1954)
- South African Airways Flight 201 (operated by BOAC) (Mediterranean, near Naples, April 8, 1954)
- Flight 911, (Mount Fuji, March 5, 1966)
[edit] Popular culture
- BOAC is mentioned in the first line of The Beatles song "Back in the USSR".
- Bobby Bloom's song Montego Bay also mentions BOAC in the first line; he pronounces it as an acronym (rather than as an initialism, which was more usual), using it to mean a BOAC aircraft.
- A song by electronic music group Autechre is titled Under BOAC.
- BOAC is mentioned in the eighth line of the J-pop song, "Nagisa ni Matsuwaru Etc." by the Japanese group Puffy (Puffy AmiYumi).
- BOAC flight bags and memorabilia have remained popular 'retro' fashion items.
- Evolutions of the BOAC logo inherited from Imperial Airways, the Speedbird, continue to be used as the logo for British Airways, and continues to be used as BA's call sign.
- In Ian Fleming's James Bond series, Bond flies with BOAC on many occasions, including The Man With The Golden Gun
[edit] References
- ^ Goss, Christopher H. (2001). Bloody Biscay: The History of V Gruppe/Kampfgeschwader 40. Manchester: Crécy Publishing, 50-56. ISBN 0947554874.
- ^ N/461. Howard & Churchill. Retrieved on [[2006, 02 December]].
