First scheduled service to New York started exactly 75 years ago: Aviodrome restores aircraft

It was exactly 75 years ago today that the first scheduled flight took off between Amsterdam and New York. A first: KLM was the first European airline to fly to the US. Visitors to Aviodrome can hopefully experience for themselves this year what it was like on board. The museum is in fact restoring a similar aircraft in the style of 1946.

The exterior of this four-engine aircraft with room for 44 passengers has already been restored: all control surfaces have been re-covered with canvas, the entire fuselage has been stripped bare and painted in the colors of the original 1946 Douglas DC-4 with registration PH-TAR. As soon as corona weather permits, volunteers will get to work on the interior. This will be restored to its former glory, including working lights and an audio-visual presentation with original footage of the 1946 flight.

Good imageAlthough the aircraft in the Aviodrome is not the one that took off from Schiphol Airport on May 21, 1946, visitors here will be able to get a good idea of the first major scheduled flight to the United States, says Raymond Oostergo, collection manager at the Aviodrome. "We are restoring it completely in the style of those very first years. It is no longer imaginable now, with all the daily flights to New York, but back then this was really very special. With the exception of flights to the Dutch East Indies, this was one of the first intercontinental scheduled services."

The route initially had two stopovers: one in Prestwick (Glasgow) and one in Gander, Newfoundland. Total travel time was 25.5 hours, including 21 flight hours. Originally flown twice a week, the number was soon increased, and eventually daily flights took off from Schiphol Airport for New York starting in 1950.

From Schiphol Airport to LelystadThe original Douglas DC-4 from its first flight in 1946 no longer exists - it flew only briefly at KLM and was scrapped in 1975. The aircraft in Aviodrome is a Douglas C-54A, the military version of a Douglas DC-4. The aircraft entered service with the U.S. Air Force in 1942. After the war, the plane flew in the United States, Asia and Africa. In 2003, Aviodrome moved the plane from Schiphol Airport to Lelystad (by road) and it has been on display at the aviation museum ever since.