Aruba's Aviation History
First Flight
Most books & information point to SCADTA's Dornier Wall in 1925 as the first airplane to ever visit Aruba.
The first experience however was in 1923 when United States Marines visited Aruba & Curacao.
In our research no specific date was found but these two Curtiss F51's flying boats visited the islands
between 18th and 22nd of August 1923. Despite the significance there isn't too much detailed information on the visit.
The coming of SCADTA
In 1923 SCADTA which was later renamed Avianca started planning for some routes to the north,
namely the U.S. Fuel and rest stops needed though to be made in the Caribbean.
Preparations started in Curacao where they planned to operate from.
Even some small islands were bought by their representative on that island.
The idea was to land and dock at the lagoon behind Willemstad named Schottegat.
Because of several problems in Colombia this was delayed.
It was in 1924 when SCADTA and Condor signed an agreement that these plans started taking shape again.
Condor had two Italian build Dornier Wall hidro aircrafts at their disposal which were transported via cargo ships to Curacao.
Once in Curacao these two flying boats named "Pacifico" and "Atlantico" had to be assembled.
On April 8th 1925 test flights were made from Barranquilla to Curacao and La Guaira with the "Pacifico"
which had an Italian registration namely "I-DOOR". Four local flights were also carried out over
Curacao which costed $20 p.p. The Pacifico also carried out the first Airmail flights from Curacao
connecting the island with La Guaira & Maracaibo. Passengers were also accepted on these flights
for a hefty $70 for persons which weighted 70 kilos or less (each additional kilo meant an extra $1!).
On July the 4th 1925 Aruba finally got the chance to see the Pacifico which came
from Curacao. It landed at Paardenbaai (Oranjestad) with gouverner Brandtjes on board.
Emotions & expectations on the islands were high but sadly just a couple of weeks later
in August 1925 SCADTA changed plans and reassigned the planes for a test flight via Central America
to the USA and so removed the Dornier's from the islands. These test flights with the initial plan to open a U.S. route
from Colombia were blocked by the U.S. government. SCADTA later re-assigned the "Pacifico"
to fly the Panama-Barranquilla-Curacao route and so the SCADTA continued to operate from
Curacao for the next couple of years. However they encountered several obstacles during
that time including an incident with the "Pacifico" and Paraguana. Details or where abouts
of the aircraft is still unknown. SCADTA later dropped their operation in Curacao
which were later picked up by the emerging PanAm & KLM. Avianca which is still in service today
is the second oldest airline only to KLM and is in any case the oldest airline in the Americas. It was founded in 1919
by German and Colombian industrialists. One could fairly say that it is the airline that
has served the islands of Aruba and Curacao for a longer period of time than any other airline in the world.
Caribbean Flying Service
Aruba started seeing some aviation activities again in 1932 when local automobile
businessman Manuel Viana of Portugeese extraction got interested in starting flying company.
Together with two Americans James M. Massey and James L. Hathaway both employees of
Lago, they started planning for the new company. Massey went to the U.S. to learn to fly
and returned in June 1932 with a 185 hp Curtiss Robin three seater.
The new company was officialy established on June 1st 1932 with the commercial name of:
NV Caribische Vliegdienst Onderneming or Caribbean Flying Service (CFS).
The financial injection in the new company was of Fl.50.000 CFS main goal was to connect
Aruba with closeby cities and islands offering passenger, cargo & mail flights but intentions
were also carry out flight training flights. The board consisted of A. de Boer (managing director),
G.A. Kuipero and Manuel Viana. which didn't take long for them realize that operating an aircraft
in Aruba was no easy task due to maintanance. On top of it the Robin had to be written off just a couple
of months later because of a tornado which was caused by a hurricane that passed pretty close to the island.
Because of this CFS had to buy a new aircraft, this time a Bird BK three seating bi-plane.
The aircraft costed $5000 and was shipped to Aruba. Massey's former instructor in Dallas (Mr. Viccellio)
also came with the aircraft to solidify the company. New hangars, office buildings and a home were build
on Savaneta's long and dry beach. Viccelio was also a mechanic and played a key role in the company.
He also thought American and locals to fly as well as William Ewart and John McCord which later formed the
Aruba Flying Club in 1942. Local flights were also executed at $5 per person.
The Bird BK resulted in a good aircraft, records show it flew until at least 1940
and had an American registration NC13204. With the company well established CFS started looking
for possibilities to connect the ABC islands via air. They started looking for a more aduecate aircraft
for these routes and got a break via Lago contacts which had a Loening C-2H Air Yacht
in Venezuela. Since Lagoven in Venezuela wasn't satisfied with the performance of the aircraft
for the particular terrains overthere, they agreed to sell it after flying a mere 262 hours with it.
The aircraft was originally delivered on 18th Sep 1929 (#234) to Standard Oil of Louisiana with registration NC137H.
In April 1932 it was send to Lagoven in Venezuela. In Aug 1933 CFS took over this single
engine Air Yacht which could carry 6 passengers. The fact that the aircraft could also land in water
brought a sense of confidence in the publics eye. Initial plans were to fly a Maracaibo-Aruba-Curacao v.v. route.
In early 1934 a test flight was made to Curacao where it landed at Hato airport.
However neccesarry permits were delayed by authorities in Curacao although the
aircraft got what is believed to be the first PJ registration namely PJ-ZAA.
It was until August 28th 1934 that the Leoning made the first official airmail flight
with Viccellio as pilot. Up to three weekly flight were carried out with most of
the mail going from Aruba to Curacao since the company was already well known in Aruba.
Passenger service also started with John Eman handling the bookings in Aruba and S.E.L.
Maduro in Curacao. An Aruba-Curacao or v.v. one way costed Fl.25,50 and the flight time
was of 50 minutes from Aruba to Curacao and 40 minutes v.v. due to the headwinds from Aruba.
Most of the landings were made at Hato airport and on the beach strip at Savaneta.
Water landings were kept at a minimum because a water landing meant that the aircraft had to
be completely washed with fresh water which was not very abundant those days on Aruba.
At the end of 1934 heavy maintanance had to be made to the Loening and at the same time
KLM was finalizing plans to start operations on the ABC islands.
An offer by KLM was made to CFS to buy out their airmail consession which
was also accepted by the board. This meant the beginning of the end for the short
lived Caribbean Flying Service. KLM also made a bid to buy the Bird bi-plane for $3000 but this
was refused by Viana and given to his helper & good friend John McCord a sportflyer.
The Leoning remained grounded and the motor was later sold in the U.S.
The propeller later stood a good couple of years on the walls in the club house of the AFC
at De Vuyst airfield. The aircraft itself seemed to have slowly dissapeared in the hands of
neighbors. Viccellio remained on Aruba although he did not fly anymore.
He worked in a garage at Lago for about 9 months until KLM ran into a problem
when one of its F-18's namely the PJ-AIO "Ochoe" landed on its nose in Aruba.
The young pilot was send to Holland and a short time later the only chef pilot
Verhoeven got sick which meant that the KLM operation came to a halt.
Someone remembered that Viccellio was still in Aruba so he accepted the job.
KLM's WIB director Bouman was not very thrilled with the idea though but Viccellio
showed him otherwise and remained with KLM until 1940.
So the Caribbean Flying Service dream came to an end. It sure deserved better and one
can even attribute part of KLM's early success to CFS which brought confidence in air travel
on the islands.
ArubaAviation.com
