"I SAW the green hills of Ireland and I knew that I had hit Europe on the nose," said Charles Lindbergh when he landed in Paris after his historic solo flight across the North Atlantic in May 1927. "Ireland", he went on, "is one of the four corners of the world." Lindbergh remembered Ireland's key geographical position when a few years later he was engaged as consultant to advise Pan American and other airlines about prospective routes that would link the Old and the New Worlds.
A transatlantic flight in the 1930s, even between the extremities of both continents, was close to the maximum range of the aircraft of the time. Moreover, runways at land based aerodromes tended to be made of grasp and could accommodate only aeroplanes of a very modest weight. The "flying boat", however, was by its nature ideally suited to cope with these restrictions, and in the case of oceanic routes it enjoyed a perfect landing area - not just at its destination - but at any point en route if it should need it in an emergency.
After investigating possible sites in Galway and Cork, Lindbergh finally settled on the calm land locked waters of the Shannon Estuary as the perfect stepping stone for such aircraft plying between Europe and America. Thus it was that an intergovernmental meeting in Ottawa in November 1935 formally agreed the introduction of a scheduled mail and passenger air service between the two continents, and the little village of Foynes in Co Limerick appeared for the first time on the aviation map.
Sixty years ago today the local people crowded on the jetty to watch the first arrival. On the afternoon of Thursday, February 25th, 1937, the harbour master arranged for the landing area to be clear of boats. Shortly after 5 pm the Imperial Airways flying boat Cambria, which had left Southampton three hours previously, circled the estuary before settling gently down upon the Shannon, and drifting shorewards towards the waiting crowds.
During the following two years an exhaustive succession of transatlantic "proving flights" were undertaken.
Then on June 28th, 1939, the first scheduled passenger flight from Newfoundland landed at Foynes, and the little village occupied centre stage in transatlantic aviation until operations transferred across the river to the new airport at Rineanna in 1945. By then the era of the flying boat was almost over, but it is commemorated in the museum in Foynes which tells the story of that little village's brief but exhilarating tenure as one of the four corners of the world.