British Overseas Airways Corporation
Encyclopedia : B : BR : BRI : British Overseas Airways Corporation
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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 were used to transport passengers and mail. BOAC also operated the famous Handley-Page Hannibal airliner for service through Europe.As well as training pilots in the UK BOAC operated a tropical training school in Soroti, North East Uganda.
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
Introduction of jets
In May 1952, BOAC became the first airline to use a passenger jet, the de Havilland Comet. All Comet 1 aircraft were grounded in April 1954 after three BOAC Comets crashed. Investigators discovered serious cracks in the planes' structures. The cracks were caused by metal fatigue due to the repeated pressurization and depressurization of airplanes as they ascended and descended. While fixing 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 something of a political row in England, and eventually resulted 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 would enter service with BOAC, adding an additional 17 stretched Super VC-10s.
BOAC would later go on to become the largest Boeing customer outside North America. The next major order for Boeing aircraft was that for 11 747-100s. BOAC received its first 747 on April 22, 1970, however due to industrial action by the British Air Line Pilots Association the aircraft did not enter commercial service for 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.
Dissolution
On September 1, 1972 the British Airways Board was formed, a holding board that controlled BOAC and BEA. On March 31, 1974 both 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.
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.
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References
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