Draft:The River Plate Aviation Company

History

Shirley G. Kingsley arrived first in Argentina to work as a motor engineer when an extension of the Buenos Aires Great Southern Railway was built in Patagonia. On the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914, he joined the Royal Flying Corps, and became an experienced airman, having received his brevet on 18 June 1915. He flew numerous bombing and reconnaissance sorties for which he was awarded the Military Cross, completing 1.762 flying hours when he arrived back to Argentina, this time representing George Holt Thomas's Aircraft Manufacturing Company Ltd of England, or Airco as it was called.

Late in May 1919, Kingsley received in Montevideo an Airco DH.4A (F2663), a bombing biplane converted into a transport by adding a glazed cabin for two passengers.  On 10 June, 1919, he made his first crossing of the River Plate to El Palomar aerodrome in Argentina and, always accompanied by two passengers, he begins a series of demonstration flights completing eleven trips in five weeks between Buenos Aires and Montevideo, together with other sorties to Bahia Blanca, Rosario, Bell Ville. Gualeguay, Colonia, Córdoba, and one complete circuit of Uruguay.

The River Plate Aviation Company

The time then appeared to be opportune for the formation of a company to bring out a number of aeroplanes and get the public accustomed to flying themselves, as well as seeing others flying. Major Kingsley formed The River Plate Aviation Company on 10 July, 1919 entirely on local capital invested principally by the Argentine entrepreneur Carlos A. Tornquist and other wealthy and influential friends, both British and Argentine, including the aviation pioneer Aaron de Anchorena and the Buenos Aires City Council member Henry C. Thompson, not less important were Alfredo Peña and Olive Thompson.

During the next few months they ordered some £23,000 worth of British aircraft, engines and accessories. This included two four-seat Airco DH.16s (Nº2 and Nº3) and twelve wartime Airco DH.6 trainers that started to arrive at El Palomar airfield beginning operations on a charter basis early in December that year. A third Airco DH.16 (c/n P-4), a former Aircraft Transport & Travel biplane, arrived afterwards in May 1920.

As El Palomar was a military aerodrome, The River Plate Aviation had to set up its own civil installations-stores, workshop, hangars and aero club-at San Isidro in Buenos Aires Province on 23 May, 1920. This airport was also occupied by a French company, the Compañia Franco-Argentina de Transportes Aéreos, that closed soon afterwards and the Aero-Club Argentino. In due course, it was from this airfield that it began Argentina's first regularly scheduled air service.

At this period The River Plate Aviation Company had as many as eight machines and pilots engaged simultaneously in travelling all over the Argentine and going as far as Paraguay and Brazil while employing 30 mechanics. The pilots were both British and Argentine veterans: Patrick Hassett, Joselin Lewis, Sydney Holland, Teo Davenport, Arnold Syddal, Oliver Thompson, Brian Ferrand, Perry Greenwood and Edward Melvyns.

Compañía Rioplatense de Aviación Sociedad Anónima

The River Plate Aviation Company had, of course, realized that, in common with aerial transport companies in all parts of the world, an aeroplane could not be flown cheaply enough to make a profit without substantial official assistance.. They had, of course, been operating at a loss for nearly three years, so they planned to move on in pursuance of official support, but not until some reorganization had taken place

On 21 September, 1921, they turned their syndicate into an Argentine limited company, starting to use its name in Spanish: Compañía Rioplatense de Aviación Sociedad Anónima, and in addition to their other activities, from 17 December, 1921, operated a twice a week international regular service during the summer months between San Isidro, near Buenos Aires and Villa Colón, in Uruguay, serving Montevideo until 30 April, 1922. In spite of not being subsidized and the high running costs in Argentina, they only charged £6 10s the single journey and £11 15s the return.

British flying-boats

As Buenos Aires and Montevideo are both ports, and the docks are within five minutes of the business districts, they decided that their service could be greatly improved by adopting flying boats. A contract was made with Brig-Gen Guy de Livingston representing the Vickers Limited, who agreed to participate with them in the scheme, supplying two Vickers Type 73 Viking IV amphibian flying-boats (Nº19 and Nº20), which could be housed and repaired on their land aerodrome in San Isidro and leave every morning for the port.

Capable of carrying six passengers at a speed of approximately 100 miles per hour, Kingsley asked both aircraft to be equipped with glass-topped cabins and powered by 360 hp Rolls-Royce Eagle VIII engines to be standard with Airco aircraft. In consequence, a delay occurred in the delivery of the Viking-Rolls amphibian and it was not until February 1923 that they arrived in Buenos Aires.

In compensation for the carriage of air mail, and occasionally an Argentine army pilot, they had eventually prevailed upon the Post Office to grant a subsidy of 4,500 pesos a month, while the Ministry of War contributed an equal sum as a direct subsidy. On 28 December, 1923, the Post Office established an official air mail, issuing special stamps, with surcharge, effective from 1 January, 1924.

On 31 December 1923, the Vickers Viking amphibians daily regular international service was inaugurated, which plied between Dársena Norte, the port of Buenos Aires and the Muelle (pier) Maciel, in Montevideo, a service which continued until 31 March, 1923. They were moored at a special raft, which they had constructed, and there awaited the passengers and the mails, which were brought out from the quayside, some 300 yards away, in a motor-launch.

As the Government was unable to renew or increase the subsidy, after a meeting on 26 March 1924, the Compañía Rioplatense de Aviación Sociedad Anónima, after alerting the authorities of their intention, closed down the service on the following day, ceasing their operations in aviation.

"After five years of operations without a single accident of sufficient importance to cause injury to any one of the 16,000 passengers carried, including short pleasure flights and the £35,000 or so, which expended to prepare the ground, all that they had originally set out to do may be said to have been amply fulfilled".

Legacy

The route across the River Plate from the Port of Buenos Aires to the Port of Montevideo that Kingsley had been created was serviced by many air lines and machines until 1962, when the last Short Sandringham Flying Boat was withdrawn from use in Aerolíneas Argentinas.