Cabo Ruivo Seaplane Base
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Cabo Ruivo Seaplane Base [Aeroporto Marítimo de Cabo Ruivo] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | |
|---|---|
| Summary | |
| Airport type | Public |
| Owner | Portuguese State |
| Serves | Lisbon, Portugal |
| Location | Cabo Ruivo, Lisbon |
| Hub for | Pan American World Airways |
| Elevation AMSL | 0 ft / 0 m |
| Map | |
  Cabo Ruivo Location within Portugal | |
Cabo Ruivo Seaplane Base (Portuguese: Aeroporto Marítimo de Cabo Ruivo) was an international airport for seaplanes located in the city of Lisbon, the capital of Portugal.[1] It takes its name from the Lisbon neighbourhood of Cabo Ruivo. The airport was, especially throughout the Second World War, a major gateway and escape route for intercontinental airtravel.[2][3]
History
In the 1930s, the Portuguese Government decided to replace the Campo Internacional de Aterragem, at Alverca, with two new airports nearer to Lisbon's city center: today's Lisbon Portela Airport and the Aeroporto Marítimo de Cabo Ruivo on the Tagus River, which handled transatlantic flights operated with seaplanes. Both airports were built at the same time in 1938 and completed in 1939/1940. The Aeroporto Marítimo de Cabo Ruivo was located on the dock facility Doca dos Olivais.[4] Avenida de Berlim, a major road, was built to connect the two airports.
The US intercontinental airline Pan American World Airways, which was a major promoter of the airport's construction, used the airport as a hub for its transatlantic flights until 1945.
The first commercial flight landed on 29 June 1939 on the water airstrip of the Aeroporto Marítimo de Cabo Ruivo. This Atlantic flight from New York to Lisbon was operated by a Boeing 314 "Yankee Clipper" (indicator NC 18603) of Pan American World Airways, with 22 passengers and 12 crew members on board.
On February 22, 1943, the exact same seaplane of Pan American World Airways was destroyed in a crash while landing on the Tagus River. 24 of the 39 occupants were killed.[5] In 1958, a Martin PBM-5 Mariner crashed on an outbound flight to Madeira, about an hour after taking off from Cabo Ruivo.[6]
With the enormous increase in the importance of terrestrial air traffic the era of seaplanes ended and the flight operations in Cabo Ruivo were discontinued in the late 1950s. The dock was redeveloped in the context of Lisbon's 1998 World Expo. Today, the dock is at the center of the Parque das Nações, where the Lisbon Oceanarium is located.
References
- ^ "Lisboa-Cabo Ruivo Seaplane Base profile". Aviation Safety Network.
- ^ http://www.historynet.com/lisbon-harbor-of-hope-and-intrigue.htm HistoryNet entry on Lisbon's role in WW2
- ^ Weber, Ronald (2011). The Lisbon Route: Entry and Escape in Nazi Europe Lanham, Maryland. Ivan R. Dee. p. 11. ISBN 978-1-56663-876-0.
- ^ Plan of the Airport's layout in the Doca dos Olivais.
- ^ "Blog do Comissário de Bordo: Primeiro voo comercial transatlântico".
- ^ "ASN Aircraft accident Martin PBM-5 Mariner CS-THB Lisbon, Portugal". Aviation Safety Network. 9 November 1958.
External links
- History of the Airport (PDF-file; 604 kB) from the Associação Náutica da Marina do Parque das Nações (in Portuguese)
- Blog with period pictures from the time of flight operations (in Portuguese)
Category:Airports in Portugal Category:Buildings and structures in Lisbon Category:Defunct airports Category:Transport in Lisbon