CIVIL AVIATION DECADE IN ISRAEL
n July 1959 the Israel Post issued a stamp commemorating the first decade of civil aviation in Israel, designed by the Israeli artist Paul Kor. On the tab were the insignia of El Al and the inscription in Hebrew and French "10 years of civil aviation in Israel". The stamp was printed by photolithography on watermarked paper.
In 1948 all that existed was a small Air Company in Lod, built by the British, but completely lacking in installations following the Arab occupation. It was staffed by a handful of officials and some trained pilots, veterans of the Royal Air Force.
It required great courage to venture into the highly technical field of aviation in which Jews had practically no experience. Some expert help was forthcoming from the International Civil Aviation Organisation, a specialised UN agency, but the main source was the influx of Jewish mechanics, radio operators and pilots from all over the world who responded to Israel's call to build up her Air Force and Airline.
Many of them, initially termed "foreign personnel" at El Al, eventually settled in Israel and formed the nucleus of what gradually became a large body of trained and licensed technicians and air personnel.
Lod Airport was rebuilt and by 1959 functioned as a modern airport with nine major air companies operating services to Israel. Agreements with their countries of origin granted El Al reciprocal rights. Israel, through its Department of Civil Aviation was by now a full-fledged member of the International Civil Aviation Organisation.
By 1958 Lod Airport was serving over 100,000 incoming and departing passengers, as against 28,000 in 1948. El Al became the first airline to operate long -range turbo-prop equipment and carried over 50,000 passengers in 1958. In the same year Israel's domestic airline, Arkia Airlines, carried 70,000 passengers on its main Tel Aviv-Elath route, operating up to 12 flights daily.
In the field of agriculture and pest control, two small crop dusting and spraying air companies operated thousands of flights to protect the highly-vulnerable cotton crop from plant pests.
With the exception of the shooting down of the El Al aircraft over Bulgaria in 1955, no El Al passenger lost his life. This was due in large measure to El Al's stringent standards of safety and checking, and painstaking training of its staff.
Another innovative and time and money-saving development was the Bedek Aircraft Overhaul Base with its hundreds of trained technicians, which enabled aircraft overhaul and repairs to be carried out in Israel and not in Europe or the United States.
By the end of the first decade El Al's four Constellations and four Britannias, with their Hebrew lettering and Magen David were a familiar sight at major airports all over the world.
By 1959 El Al employed 1000 persons, including 150 air personnel. During 1958 El Al planes carried over 200 tons of mail all over the world.
An Israel Post van loads mailbags on an El Al plane at Lod Airport.
See also El-AlEL_AL, Ben-Gurion Airport 50th AnniversaryBEN_GURION_AIRPORT_50TH_ANNIVERSARY.