Publication: Empresa Consolidada Cubana de Aviacion, 1962, Havana, Cuba
First edition of this rare and early report on the progress of the Cuban Airline Company under the Communist government of Fidel Castro on the eve of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Quarto. Cloth-backed cardboard covers, (Hecho en Cuba), typed label affixed to the front cover, slide clasp folder, [2], 2-4, 19, [20] mimeographed leaves. Contains seven folding tables, four silver gelatin photographs (each 8" x 10"). The year 1962 was in fact proclaimed by the Party to be “Año de la Planificacion.” The report details the business opportunities, and difficulties faced by the State Airline in the early 1960s, describing the different aircraft available, the numbers of flights, amounts of freight shipped nationally and internationally, as well as the impact and efforts of the National Revolutionary Militias on the Cuban National Airline. There are detailed reports on the efforts to find spare parts and how the government’s appropriation of many different private airlines and freight carriers resulted in a variety of aircraft that required service, including one DC-3, four Curtiss C-46, one Douglas DC-4, a Super G Constellation, a Viscount 818, four Britannia 318, and even nine Soviet Ilyushin 14s. The photographs each include explanatory sheets on the Bristol Britannia 318 (the British aircraft manufacturer had a special arrangement with the Cuban Revolutionary government beginning in 1958 to maintain this aircraft). The C-45 Commandos were transport aircraft used as passenger airliners, but then were replaced by C-47s [these rugged aircraft continue to operate today]. The Ilyushin 14 was an unusually reliable plane preferred by poorer countries with poor quality airfields, such as Cuba. The photographs show three of the Company’s aircraft on the tarmac, and one view of a plane in the air (close-up). No copies located on OCLC Laid-in is a typed letter, signed by Carlos Coca Oliver on Empresa Consolidada letterhead. Covers lightly soiled else a very good copy.
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