The Swansea Air Pageant 🛩️

On July 2nd 1949, 15,000 people flocked to Fairwood Common - the site of Swansea Airport today - for an air show featuring death-defying wing walkers, Hollywood film stars, and the city's first-ever "Air Queen."

This week, discover how a spectacular day of parachutists, reluctant mothers taking their first flights, and big dreams tried to put Swansea on the aviation map.

Catch you on Sunday! Andrew

The Dream of Flying

In spring 1949, RAF Fairwood Common (renamed Fairwood Common Aerodrome) had been decommissioned after serving as a fighter station defending South and West Wales throughout World War II. Now this magnificent aerodrome - with its long runways and modern facilities sat largely unused.

During the war, even a basic landing strip at Kenfig Burrows near Porthcawl had operated regular passenger flights to Cardiff. But due to beuracracy and red tape, Swansea couldn't get permission for commercial flights.

Enter the Swansea Air Advisory Council with a clever plan: if they couldn't get commercial flights immediately, they'd start with a Flying School and Club - launched in May 1949. That, plus the July 1949 Air Pageant was designed as the ultimate demonstration that Welsh people were "air-minded."

As chairman of the show’s organising committee C.B. Jones put it, the goal was to eventually "fly in and out of Fairwood without let or hindrance from the powers-that-be."

Death-Defying Acts and Hollywood Glamour

On one of the hottest days of the year, 15,000 spectators poured onto Fairwood Common, with packed buses streaming from Swansea all morning to enjoy the air show, funfair, and live music.

When a fragile German "Zaunkoenig" aircraft was damaged in a touchdown at Cardiff while en route to Swansea and could no longer attend, 19-year-old Brenda Jones from Leigh-on-Sea improvised what became the most memorable moment of the day.

She ran toward a taxiing plane, looking like she was going to deliver a paper to the pilot. While standing on the wing, the aircraft suddenly took off and circled the control tower with Brenda still clinging on. The crowd watched in horror until she eventually climbed into the cockpit. Only later did they learn it was a planned stunt.

Meanwhile, world record parachutist Gwynne Johns from Llandovery held the massive crowd spellbound as he plummeted hundreds of feet before opening his parachute on what was his 56th delayed drop. Later, a team of three stunt parachutists were dropped together from 3,000 feet, with Johnny Ralling hurtling to within 1,000 feet of the ground before pulling his ripcord.

In other acts, Ex-Fleet Air Arm pilot "Doc" Morrell provided "crazy flying" aerobatics in his Tiger Moth, while gliding ace W.L. Jennings demonstrated the "glamour of gliding" in an Olympia Eon sailplane.

But it wasn't just about the aerial performances. Film stars of the day, Donald Houston and Diana Dors, attended the glamorous Air Ball at Brangwyn Hall the night before, while Swansea's first "Air Queen," Miss Edna Reynolds of Gendros - winner of the beauty pageant at the Air Ball - took her first loop-the-loop flight and, upon landing, declared it "lovely."

Convincing Mum to Fly

The real proof that Swansea was "air-minded" came from an unexpected source - children. For just 10 shillings, passengers could experience what many had only dreamed of - seeing Swansea from the air.

By the end of the day, over 1,000 people had taken joyrides in the aircraft, with 5 passenger planes flying queues of people until 9.30 PM - extraordinary proof of public appetite for aviation.

In the morning flights alone, 29 of the first 52 passengers were children who had convinced their reluctant mothers to take their first flights. One mother admitted: "I was not very anxious to make a trip, but my two boys insisted that I should go. Now I am glad I did."

Mrs. Ken Jones from Derwen Fawr, Sketty, brought her three-year-old daughter Jacqueline - the youngest passenger of the day - along with five-year-old son Hugh and seven-year-old John Evans. After landing, she said: "We all really enjoyed it, and Hugh was quite excited."

The flights were piloted by Miss Suzanne Chapman from Bishopston, a former wartime transport pilot who had flown between factories and aerodromes during the conflict.

The joyrides proved the organisers' point perfectly. If over 1,000 people were willing to pay to fly on a single day in 1949, surely there was demand for regular passenger services from Fairwood.

The Dream That Almost Worked

The air show became an annual event for several years, and commercial flights did begin from Fairwood - though not until June 1957, when Swansea Corporation allowed Cambrian Airways to run the newly renamed Swansea Airport on a commercial basis. The first flight from Swansea Airport departed to London in 1959.

For the next 12 years, multiple airlines operated through the airport with varying degrees of success. Cambrian Airways ran services to Jersey and Guernsey, while Morton Air Services operated flights to Gatwick. The dream was becoming reality.

But scheduled flights ceased in 1969, and the following decades saw only sporadic charter services.

The biggest comeback attempt came in 2001 when Air Wales launched ambitious services to Dublin, Cork, Amsterdam, Jersey and London. Owner Roy Thomas invested over £3.25 million of his personal fortune into the venture. But after 18 months, the airline was getting only one-tenth of the passengers needed to break even.

The final blow came when aviation authorities demanded £350,000 for improved landing lights. Thomas pulled out, concentrating operations at Cardiff instead. Since October 29th, 2004, there have been no scheduled flights from Swansea Airport.

The 1949 air show had proven demand existed - but getting it going and keeping it going proved far more challenging.

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