Fly London to South Africa in 45 days
Hello all you awesome beautiful people of read! 4th February 2022 4/28
Today is February 4th 2022, and I was earlier doing some research for an article I am writing and came across some interesting facts about today.
It really proved to me just how far we have advanced over the last 100 years, in a technological sense anyway.
Let's rewind to this day in 1920 and let me introduce you to Lt. Col Pierre van Ryneveld and Lt. Col Christopher Joseph Qunitin Brand.
They were two pilots who took off from London in a Vickers Vimy plane named the Silver Queen.
Their destination was Cape Town in South Africa, and this was to be the first flight from London to South Africa.
There had previously been several British teams who set out in a bid to pioneer this new air route, however, of them had crashed their aircraft and ultimately abandoned their effort.
Upto the plate stepped the South African duo of van Ryneveld and Brand.
Van Ryneveld's full name was Hesperus Andrias van Ryneveld but he went by the nickname of Pierre, much less of a mouthful if you ask me!
During the first world war he served in the Royal Flying Corps and then the Royal Air Force.
After the war, the South African Prime Minister Jan Smuts recalled him back to South Africa to set up the South African Air Force (SAAF).
This was why on February 4th 1920 both he and his fellow pilot Brand set off on their mammoth 45 day trip.
Image by Moshe Harosh from Pixabay
During bad weather, they had a leaking radiator and they were forced to crash land at Wadi Halfa in Sudan. Unluckily for them they wrote their plane off in the crash landing.
Jan Smuts managed to pull some strings and they pair were loaned another Vimy F8615 from the Royal Air Force at Heliopolis, in Egypt, which they called Silver Queen 2.
After 11 days, the pair were able to carry on their journey. Then Silver Queen 2 had a disaster similar to the one that befell the original Silver Queen!
Silver Queen 2 was overloaded and it crashed on March 6th in Bulawayo (which is the second-largest city in Zimbabwe).
Jan Smuts came to the rescue again! He arranged for another plane to be flown to Bulawayo, this time it was a de Havilland DH9.
After another 11 day delay, the pair of pilots were able to depart Bulawayo on March 17th.
The pair finally touched down on March 20th at Young’s Field in Wynberg, Cape Town, 45 days after they had set off from London on February 4th.
Their actual flying time was 109 hours and 30 minutes.
For this heroic and mammoth journey the pair were knighted.
van Ryneveld did set up and establish the SAAF in 1920, and he directed it until 1933, when he was promoted to Chief of the General Staff in command of the Union Defence Forces.
So there you have it, a 45 day flight from London to South Africa with a couple of wee stopovers thrown in for good measure.
Could you imagine taking 45 days now, we take things for granted and would grumble if the flight took more than a few hours.
Thank you for reading and investing your time with me, I appreciate it!
I hope you have a great weekend, I might go to the beach tomorrow, do you have any plans for the weekend?
Copyright @TengoLoTodo 2022 and yes All Rights Reserved. All images, words, and ramblings are from the author unless otherwise stated.
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reading your title I thought you will be flying to Africa in 45days. can't imagine if I gonna travel this long. The longest travel I had was way back 2013. I left here in Manila (capital of Phil) Dec. 26 and I arrived in my hometown Dec. 31. But it was due to delay, I just took a bus that time. SInce then, I make sure to travel by air, it only took 45 minutes.