KLM will on Tuesday celebrate the 85th anniversary of its inaugural flight from London to Amsterdam. For this first service KLM chartered a de Havilland DH-16 plus a pilot from the British airline Aircraft Transport and Travel Ltd (AT&T). The ”plane could seat four passengers in its closed cabin. With the English Channel under terrible weather conditions pilot Jerry Shaw flew via France and Belgium to Holland, covering 482 kilometers in just over two hours. Although the cockpit had a compass, pilots mainly flew by sight, using villages or towns as points of orientation. There was no radio on board, so weather reports were listed on large blackboards set up at regular intervals along the route. As a result, the pilot could fly no higher than 300m. On top of that, the schedules were unreliable, to say the least. The early flights therefore mainly attracted adventurous passengers, who were aptly referred to as "The Courageous. Our website photo shows Jerry Shaw and the passengers welcomed by Albert Plesman, founder of KLM.
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