Palmietfontein Airport ( af, Palmietfontein Lughawe) was an airport situated to the south of

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...

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Katlehong Katlehong is a large township in the Gauteng Province of South Africa. It is 28 km south-east of Johannesburg and south of Germiston between two other townships of Thokoza and Vosloorus next to the N3 highway. It forms part of the City of E ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

, from 1945 to 1952. Latitude: -26° 20' 7.20" S Longitude: 28° 08' 28.80" E

History

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 , nativename-a = , nativename-r = , image = Rand Airport Control Tower landside.JPG , image-width = 220 , caption = Rand Airport Control Tower from landside , IATA = QRA , ICAO = FAGM , type = Publ ...

, was unable to accommodate the size of aircraft to be operated on a new service to

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. In 1948, South African Airways moved its terminal to Palmietfontein Airport. Several historical flights terminated at Palmietfontein Airport. A

Qantas Qantas Airways Limited ( ) is the flag carrier of Australia and the country's largest airline by fleet size, international flights, and international destinations. It is the world's third-oldest airline still in operation, having been founded ...

Airways

Avro Lancastrian The Avro 691 Lancastrian was a Canadian and British passenger and mail transport aircraft of the 1940s and 1950s developed from the Avro Lancaster heavy bomber. The Lancaster was named after Lancaster, Lancashire; a Lancastrian is an inhabit ...

completed an unprecedented flight from

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Kingsford Smith Airport Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport (colloquially Mascot Airport, Kingsford Smith Airport, or Sydney Airport; ; ) is an international airport in Sydney, Australia, located 8 km (5 mi) south of the Sydney central business district, in the ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

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 . 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

BOAC British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) was the British state-owned airline created in 1939 by the merger of Imperial Airways and British Airways Ltd. It continued operating overseas services throughout World War II. After the passi ...

de Havilland Comet 1 The de Havilland DH.106 Comet was the world's first commercial jet airliner. Developed and manufactured by de Havilland in the United Kingdom, the Comet 1 prototype first flew in 1949. It featured an aerodynamically clean design with four d ...

landed at Palmietfontein on a flight from the UK.

Airport layout

There were three runways, the relative positions of which formed a triangle. Runway 17/35 was the longest, being and . Runway 04/22 was and runway 13/31 was . 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 . The information is derived from an old map and airport layout diagram courtesy of E. Du Plessis.

Aircraft types that operated to and from Palmietfontein

Douglas DC-3 The Douglas DC-3 is a propeller-driven airliner manufactured by Douglas Aircraft Company, which had a lasting effect on the airline industry in the 1930s to 1940s and World War II. It was developed as a larger, improved 14-bed sleeper version ...

Lockheed Lodestar The Lockheed Model 18 Lodestar is a passenger transport aircraft of the World War II era. Design and development Sales of the 10–14 passenger Lockheed Model 14 Super Electra, which first flew in 1937, had proved disappointing, despite the air ...

Lockheed Constellation The Lockheed Constellation ("Connie") is a propeller-driven, four-engined airliner built by Lockheed Corporation starting in 1943. The Constellation series was the first pressurized-cabin civil airliner series to go into widespread use. Its press ...

de Havilland Comet The de Havilland DH.106 Comet was the world's first commercial jet airliner. Developed and manufactured by de Havilland in the United Kingdom, the Comet 1 prototype first flew in 1949. It featured an aerodynamically clean design with four d ...

Handley Page Hermes The Handley Page HP.81 Hermes was a civilian airliner designed and produced by the British aircraft manufacturer Handley Page. The Hermes was developed during the 1940s in parallel with the closely related Handley Page Hastings military transp ...

Accidents and Incidents

Accidents at the airport

* 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.

Aircraft bound to or from Palmietfontein

* On 15 May 1948, a Douglas C-49K (DC-3) ZS-BWY, was en route to Palmietfontein from Stamford Hill Airport,

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, when it crashed into a hill in bad weather with the loss of all 13 on board. * On 15 September 1952, a

South African Airways South African Airways (SAA) is the flag carrier airline of South Africa. Founded in 1934, the airline is headquartered in Airways Park at O. R. Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg and operated a hub-and-spoke network, serving ten destin ...

Douglas 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 Livingstone is a city in Zambia. Until 1935, it served as the capital city of Zambia (then Northern Rhodesia). Lying 10 km (6.2 mi) to the north of the Zambezi River, it is a tourism attraction center for the Victoria Falls, Zambia, Victo ...

to Palmietfontein. The landing occurred at night and the strip was unlighted. There were no fatalities.

Palmietfontein today

Palmietfontein was transformed into a motor racing circuit for the 1956

Rand Grand Prix The Rand Grand Prix was a motor race held at various circuits in South Africa. The first event took place in 1937 but it was not held regularly until the 1960s, when it was run to Formula One rules and formed part of the non-Championship calenda ...

, which was won by Peter Whitehead. The township of

was eventually established on the site, although parts of the original runway are still visible on

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to this day. Latitude: -26° 20' 7.20" S Longitude: 28° 08' 28.80" E

References

External links

Gooney Bird's BlogPictures of Palmietfontein by Etienne Du Plessis
{{authority control History of South Africa History of Germiston Airports in Johannesburg Defunct airports