History
On November 17, 1938, a Southland Airway’s Puss Moth piloted by Arthur Bradshaw made the first landing in at Milford Sound. However, any further development for air operations into the Fiord was delayed by World War II.
Post war pilot Fred ‘Popeye’ Lucas was the next to land an aircraft in Milford. He landed on the sand spit in his Southern Scenic Airtrips Auster on August 22, 1951. This then sparked the addition of an airstrip for use by his company to expand tourism into Milford Sound. An airstrip was constructed, initially 550 yards (503 metres) in length with the first official landing achieved in May, 1952.
Over the years the airstrip has been upgraded and lengthened till today’s sealed strip of 792 metres. In order for Southern Scenic Airtrips and National Airways Corporation (NAC) to be able to fly the larger twin-engine aircraft into the area the airstrip became officially licensed in 1956.
Prior to the ability of air operations, Milford Sound had no access in the winter months as the roads became impassable. With the addition of the airstrip, it was recorded that by 1964 more than 400 tourists were taking the ‘Gateway to Magnificence Experience’ flight to Milford Sound each month at peak holiday time.1
Read more about this topic: Milford Sound Airport
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The principal office of history I take to be this: to prevent virtuous actions from being forgotten, and that evil words and deeds should fear an infamous reputation with posterity.”
—Tacitus (c. 55–c. 120)
“The history of the genesis or the old mythology repeats itself in the experience of every child. He too is a demon or god thrown into a particular chaos, where he strives ever to lead things from disorder into order.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“We are told that men protect us; that they are generous, even chivalric in their protection. Gentlemen, if your protectors were women, and they took all your property and your children, and paid you half as much for your work, though as well or better done than your own, would you think much of the chivalry which permitted you to sit in street-cars and picked up your pocket- handkerchief?”
—Mary B. Clay, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 3, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)