1928>

Joy Flight

Unique short Polygoon movie of students and teachers from a Technical School in Amsterdam in spring 1928. The students demonstrate a small self built aircraft and they are invited for a flight over Amsterdam, first in a Fokker F.VIIa. Another group arrives in a F.VIII.

The KNILM

When the KLM was established in 1919 it was called the 'Royal Dutch and Colonial Airline Company'. Even in those early days the possibility of operating in the East and West Indies was being investigated. Plesman was contemplating the organisation of an airshow in Dutch East India (now Indonesia)

The following is an excerpt from a letter Plesman wrote to an acquaintance, who was a flying officer in the Colony: 'It is my intention to embark upon airtransport in our colonies as soon as possible, and I hope to make use of your propaganda for this purpose. We could always organise some kind of aviation party.'

KLM representatives in the colonies - particularly in what was then Batavia - did their utmost to establish an inter-insular service and, of course, an air link with the mother country.

KLM was involved in the first flight to the colonies in 1924. In the years therafter, flights were occasionally undertaken, but it was not until 16 July 1928 that the Nederlandsch-Indische Luchtvaart Maatschappij (The Dutch-East Indian Airline Company) was established. In early october of 1928 the new company was also designated 'Royal'

A division of tasks was made: the KNILM was in charge of inter-insular operations in the East Indies and KLM was in charge of the Amsterdam-Batavia service, which opened on trial in 1929 and opened on a two-weekly based service in october 1930.

First luitenant M. van Haselen, J.J. Moll ans S. Elleman flew the H-NAFB in twelve days to Java, september 192824 september 1928, the H-NAFB has landed in Bender Abbas and van Haselen has time to pose

In december 1928 a special flight was organised to deliver Christmasmail to the Indies. Captain Frijs, flightengineer C.A. Bruynstein and copilot Jan Duimelaar at Schiphol just before departureThe H-NACC's pioneering flight had demonstrated that Indonesia could be reached by air. More and more voices were raised in favor of regular services. A number of trial flights were conducted in 1928Albert Plesman and Anthony Fokker: they gave the Netherlands a special place in the development of civil air trafficIn 1928, Fokker build a new F.VIIb-3M for the famous Van Lear Black, this was the G-AADZ, owned by a airlinecompany from mr Lear Black especially grounded for this purpose

 

 

Six experimental flights to the East

In 1928, the Fokker F.VII anf the F.VIIa were succeeded by the triple-engined F-Vllb, which was used for the irregular experimental service between the Netherlands and the East Indies.

Up to the Second World War, this was the longest flight route in the world.

The six experimental journeys of 1928 to Batavia took 12 days each, with 9 flying hours per day. Eighteen stops were made along the way.

KLM and Fokker developed an excellent reputation with their pioneering enterprise.

The achchivements of the KLM pilots in their Fokker aircraft prompted many other airlines to order their aircraft in the Netherlands. In 1930, sixty-five percent of the worlds passenger aircraft were Fokkers.

Thus, the Dutch perpetuated an age-old tradition. Three centuries earlier they had played an important part in the development of long-distance shipping. This history now repeated itself in the air.

  

At september 13 1928, the first KNILM machine departed from Schiphol. Captain Kengen, H.M. van Herk and most right Koppen. In the middle to members of the Committee Dutch Indies flyroutesKLM golden coin, 1928, thanx Ton