AVIATION HISTORY

One needs to go back to the dawn of the 20th century, to trace the history of Aviation in Sri Lanka Ceylon as it was better known at that time.

Barely eight years after the historic innovation on 17th December 1903 by Two brothers, Wilbur and Orville Wright, on 12th September 1911, Cohn Brown imported the first aero plane to Sri lanka (then known as Ceylon).It came by ship and was a Bleriot monoplane (single rotor fan at the front) named after the famous French Aviator Louise Bleriot.

On 7th December 1912 the first successful flight in Ceylon was made by two Frenchmen George Verminie and marc Poorp also in a Bleriot mono plane.
From that day onwards until 7th May 1931 there would have been some aviation activity but failed to get records probably due to activities to world war1.

The first ever flight of an aircraft in to Ceylon was 7th May 1931 when Neville Vincent. Director of Civil Aviation  India .flew from Bombay to Colombo in a de Havilland Puss Moth landing at the Royal Colombo Golf Club.
In 1934 the State Council decide to construct an aerodrome and found that Ratmalana was the best area because of it’s convenience to Colombo city.

The first plane landed at Ratmalana on 27th November 1935.was a Havilland Puss Moth flown by Lyndalle Bisco. Chief flying instructor of Madras Flying Club.

In july 1936 the Ceylon Aero Club was established at Ratmalana. Aircraft operated were DH60 Moth. DH 82 Tiger Moth, BA Swallow and Moth Minor.

The first Empire airmail scheme was operated from Ratmalana to India by a WACO biplane by Tata Sons of India by end of February 1938.

1943 -46 – After the fall of Singapore to the Japanese, Qantas Empire Airways operated a nonstop service from Perth in Western Australia to koggala lake using Catalina twin –engine flying boats. This held the record for the longest nonstop commercial service in the world with a sector length of 28 hours. This service connected with land plane flights to Karachchi where Imperial air ways continued the flight to London. This provided a vital link between UK and Australia. Later Liberator and Lancastrian land planes replaced the Catalma. First From Ratmalana and then from the Royal Air Froce base in Katunayake.

The Department of Civil Aviation was set up under the Ministry of Transport in 1946.Ratmalana was taken over by the newly formed authority for civil operations.

In early 1947 the ministry of transport and Works bought three DC-3s from India for the Dept of Civil Aviation. They were named Sita Devi, Viharamaha Devi and Sunethra Devi. (these flights operated under Ceylon Airways. And as the webmaster I could not establish any evidences to verify the accuracy of above information. There fore I appreciate page visitors feedback of accurate information )

In June 1947 the Viharamaha Devi operated a 9day round trip to London. returning with a carge of electoral registers for forthcoming elections.

August 1947 when floods devastated many parts of the island that the DC3s were extensively used for relief work.

10th Dec. 1947 Air Ceylon was formed in place of Ceylon Airways. Its inaugural flight to madras taken off from Rtmalana via Palaly (Jafana).

On 4th February 1948(independence Day) the three DC-3s made a precision formation to celebrate the occasion.

In June 1948 the first special flight to Australia was , taken place by an all-Ceylonese crew and it was a charter carrying naval personnel. Air Ceylon also did a series of flights to Jeddah during the Haj season. The national carrier was flying to India and Pakistan as regional routes mutual agreements among the nations.

Air Ceylon attained genuine international status in 1949 when it entered into a partnership with ANA(Australian Nat Airways) a domestic outfit. Two DC-4 Sky masters were operated (Laxapana and Ratmalana)Colombo / London via Bombay, Karachchi, Cairo, Tel Aviva and Rome, Later services extended to Sydney with stop in Singapore and Jakarta.

After dropping Singapore Flights, in November 1955 ANA relinquished its 49% stake holding and absorbed the two DC-4s into their domestic service. Air Ceylon had no choice except returning to its former status of a domestic and regional carrier.

In February 1955 there was a introduction of a local nature. Capt. Rex De Silva through the Ceylon Air Academy inaugurated internal flights to minneriya and Trincomalee using two twin engine Dragon Rapide biplanes of wood & fabric.

In February 1956 Air Ceylon returned to International routes with its new partner KLM,using two Lockheed 749 constellations supplied by the Dutch carrier. The airline operated Colombo , Bombay , Karachchi , Bahrain ,Cairo ,Rome, London and Amsterdam on its Sapphire service. The aircraft were painted in the distinct red and yellow colours of Air Ceylon.

KLM upgraded the 749 Constellations with Lockheed Super Connjes in November 1958 and these were used to operate International routes and were replaced by Lockheed 188 Electra turboprop aircraft from KLM later on.
Meanwhile Air Ceylon’s domestic routes were expanded to Gal Oya (Ampara)Tricomalee.Batticaloa and Anuradhapura.

In 1962 International services with KLM terminated and a new pooling agreement was signed with BOAC which became British Airways. They operated Comet-4s.The difference between this and the previous arrangements was that the planes remained in the BOAC livery with a peel off sticker being fixed over the letters BOAC  when operating for Air Ceylon. These were subsequently replaced by VC -10s.

In 1964 air Ceylon’s first very own turbo-prop “Avro” IIS748 was introduced followed by a French built Nord 262 in 1967.
Two years later Air Ceylon made a big leap into the jet era by purchasing a H.S.Trident IE Tri-jet extending regional services to Sharjah in the U.A.E.A second Avro was purchased in 1975.

In 1972 Ceylon bacame a republic.That year also marked the terminatioj of the Air Ceylon/BOAC arrangement .However in 1971 Air Ceylon’s fourth partner UTA had a alredy entered into an agreement and on International routes.
In 1979 Air Ceylon bought the DC8 and operated it with a 100% Ceylonese crew.
In 1979 Air ceylon was dissovled.The remanining 2 DC-3S and the HS 748 were taken over by the Sri Lanka Air Force,The outer frame of the Trident was stored at Katunayake.

On 1st sept. 1979 the new national airline AIR LANKA was inaugurated with managerial & technical assistance from Singapore International Airline (SIA)They also provided two Boeing 707-300s.

In November 1979 Air Lanka lcased a Boeing 737-200 from Ari tara for regional flights.
In 1980 Air Lanka network expanded to Frankfurt London (Gatwick), Zurich,Paris,Bangkok,Singapore,Kula lampur,Bahrain,Dubai,Bombay,Madras and male.

In April 1980 privately owned Upali Aviation commenced on the domestic roure between Ratmalana and Palaly and Batticaloa using a de lavilland DII-6 Twin Otter turbo prop.
In May 1980 airlanka purchased the two Boeing 707s from SIA. In November obtained the first of many lockheed L-1011 Tristars and subsequently a second was added in 1981.

In 1982 Ul purchased two brand new L-1011-500 long range aircraft and first of two B747-200s in 1984.The 2nd followed in 1985.

September 1994 –UI obtains the first of 3A-340s.In the domestic operation private aviation companies such as Lion Air,Aee Air,Air Tours and Skycabs were operating Russian fixed wing aircraft and helicopters.
In 1995 all internal civil operations were suspended due to security concerns and only Lion Air operated on behalf of the Air force.

On 1st of April 1998 Air lanka was part privatized with Emirates talking around 40% stake with managerial control for 10 years.
In July 1999 Air Lanka changes name to Sri lankan AirLines with the 4th leased A-340 arriving from Paris in the new livery.
In October 1999 the first of 6 new A330-200s arrived with the 2 class seating arrangment.