page_title: Aviation in the Azores
section_title: Interwar period
hierarchical_section_title: Aviation in the Azores / History / Interwar period
caption_attribution_description: English: The Pan American World Airways Boeing 314 Yankee Clipper (serial NC18603), circa 1939. This aircraft started the Transatlantic mail service. It crashed in Lisbon, Portugal, on 22 February 1943 and was written off.
context_page_description: Aviation in the Azores is part of the greater history of aviation in Portugal, and involves the historical use of the archipelago of the Azores by North American, South American and European pioneers of aviation. The Azores is strategically located in the centre of the North Atlantic Ocean between the continents of North America and Europe, and has played a historical role in trans-Atlantic navigation. The three primary airfields of the Azores are:
  Santa Maria Airport, the historical hub of commercial air transport.
  Lajes Field, the primary military services field, also serving civilian aviation.
  Ponta Delgada João Paulo II Airport, the current hub of commercial air transport.
  Due to the relative distance between the islands of the archipelago, aviation is in many instances more viable than boat transportation, with inter-island flights being a crucial part of the Azorean infrastructure.
context_section_description: During the inter-war years, trans-Atlantic competition persisted between British and American entrepreneurs; the London-based Daily Mail promoted a competition worth £10,000, to the aviator who was able to cross the Atlantic non-stop, within 72 consecutive hours, between the United States, Canada or Newfoundland to any point in Great Britain or Ireland. In this context, three four-engine hydroplanes of the American Navy attempted the first non-stop trans-Atlantic crossing between 16–17 May 1919. Two of the planes (NC-1 and NC-3) made emergency landings near Flores: NC-1 was completely damaged, while the NC-3 was able to continue to Ponta Delgada (by 19 May), but unable to complete the journey. NC-4, under the command of Lieutenant-Commander Albert Cushing Read was able to survive the attempt, stopping in the Bay of Horta on 17 May, and continuing to Ponta Delgada (where he stopped on 20 May). After a week of rest, the team left on the morning of 27 May in the direction of Lisbon, arriving in the capital in the evening and anchoring in the Tagus River.
  Still in 1919, a hydroplane travelling from England to the United States stopped in Faial, which became a frequent occurrence over time, utilizing Horta as a stopover.
  With the advent of commercial dirigibles, the archipelago was over-flown in 1924, 1927 and 1930, by Zeppelins making the connection between Germany and the United States.
  In April 1926, a Fokker hydroplane, baptized Infante de Sagres, departed from Lisbon, under the command of Portuguese Navy pilots Moreira de Campos and Neves Ferreira, intentionally to connect Madeira and the Azores, arriving in Ponta Delgada on 9 May 1926.
  Following this first flight, in 1927, the Marquess Francesco De Pinedo, colonel in the Italian Air Force, was forced to ditch his plane 200 kilometres from the island of Flores, after departing Newfoundland. The Savoia-Marchetti S.55 hydroplane, named the Santa Maria II, was recovered and arrived in Horta, where it was repaired.
  Later that year, in October/November, a Junkers G 24 (D-1230) and a Heinkel (D-1220) hydroplane stopped off in Horta, where they encountered American aviation pioneer Ruth Elder, who was trying to emulate Charles Lindbergh's feat. Piloting a small monoplane, that she named American Girl, and accompanied by Captain George Haldeman, she was forced to ditch her plane in the waters along the north coast the island of Terceira due to mechanical problems, and the aircraft caught fire.
  In June 1928, English pilot Frank T. Courtney, piloting a Dornier Wal G-CAGI, and later in July, a French Lieutenant, in a small hydroplane named La Frégate, stopped in Horta on their trans-Atlantic flights.
  In Graciosa, on the morning of 13 June 1929, an Amiot 123 biplane overturned during an attempted emergency landing in some fields near Brasileira. The plane, piloted by Polish aviators Ludwik Idzikowski and Kazimierz Kubala had departed early that morning from Le Bourget field, in the suburbs of Paris, as part of their first trans-Atlantic crossing, heading for New York. Major Idzikowski was killed in the accident and Kazimierz Kubala suffered minor injuries, while the plane was consumed by flames during the rescue, when someone approached the wreckage with a torch. A cross was erected to mark the location of the accident.
  The following year, the Portuguese armed forces supported the idea to construct an airfield on the island of Terceira. On 4 October 1930, the first mono-motor  Avro 504K biplane called the Açor, piloted by local Frederico Coelho de Melo departed from the 600-metre-long and 70-metre-wide runway.
  Between 1930 and 1933, the American Pan American completed tests in Horta bay as part of their plans to operate trans-Atlantic routes between North America and Europe. In this context, Charles Lindbergh (accompanied by his wife Anne Morrow) in service of Pan American, landed on 21 November 1933, with his Lockheed 8 Sirius monoplane. After these tests, between 1937 and 1944, Pan America's Flying Boats (Boeing 314 Clippers) routinely made the New York-Marseilles and New York-Lon
caption: The Yankee Clipper, which started the trans-Atlantic mail service and frequently stopped in Horta (en route to Lisbon): it crashed in Lisbon on 22 February 1943
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