Degania Alef
The Aviron airline company was established in 1936 by Dov Hoz and Yitzhak Ben Ya'akov, one of the first members of Degania, at the initiative of the Histadrut trade union association and the Jewish Agency. At its beginnings, Aviron was based in three kibbutzim in the northern Jordan Valley, with the flight school in the attic of the cowshed at Degania Alef, an improvised airstrip at Afikim, and a hangar at Ashdot Ya'akov. In 1938, Aviron opened a flight school and held its first graduation ceremony of fifteen Jewish pilots on 21 April 1939.