First Plane From London

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30919, 27 November 1965, Page 1

First Plane From London

(N.Z. Press Association)

AUCKLAND, No. 26. Mangere became a special point of return for 8.0.A.C. Captain Gilbert Attwood today. It was there that he learned to fly in a Tiger Moth in 1937 and now, 29 years and 16,000 flying hours later, he was bringing in a Boeing 707 at the new international airport.

His touch-down marked the start of the airline’s 707 service from London to New Zea-

land and it also heralded the approaching end of Captain Attwood’s flying career. Next month he will retire after 20 years with the company and will go into the building business with his brother in Auckland. Among the 83 passengers on his flight today were his wife, and their two daughters, Joanne, aged six, and Karen, aged four, who will stay in a fiat in Manurewa until their bouse is built.

Captain Attwood, who is 49, was bom in Wellington but grew up in Auckland. He went to England in 1939 and served during the war with Bomber Command and the Pathfinders, earning the D.F.C. and star. In 1945 he joined British

South American Airways which later became part of 8.0.A.C. and during his long career in the air he made 750 Atlantic crossings as well as flying to many other parts of the globe. Today’s flight was “uneventful” from a professional point cf view, but that Captain Attwood had been looking forward to.

“I have enjoyed my flying, but 29 years is a long time and I feel I am still young enough to start another career back here in New Zealand,” he said.

Two of the passengers who came in the 707 on its 35-hour journey from London by the eastern route and later left with it to inaugurate the

8.0.A.C. service from Auckland to Fiji were Mr John Ross Stainton, the airline’s commercial director, and Mr Basil Bampfylde, general manager, eastern region. Mr Stainton said: “We have wanted to run a jet service between Britain and New Zealand for a long time. We did it with the Comet 4 but that aircraft was limited in range and payload. Now, with the 707, we can really get going. With an aircraft of this size and speed we should, if the response is right, be able to introduce some promotional fares to encourage New Zealanders to go to Europe more often and Americans to come here for holidays.”