Fly With the Stars: British South American Airways, the Rise and Controversial Fall of a Long-haul Trailblazer

by Susan Ottaway, Ian Ottaway

RAF "Pathfinders", British South American Airways was one of three state owned airlines established by the Civil Aviation Act of 1946 – British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC), British European Airways (BEA) and British South American Airways (BSAA). Under Bennett’s direction BSAA was a dynamic, forward thinking company which not only pioneered the difficult and dangerous routes from the UK to West Africa, South America and to the Caribbean, but also took the lead in such things as the provision of frozen meals for passengers. It was one of the first airlines to show in-flight movies – nearly twenty years ahead of its rivals. The future looked bright for BSAA, but a handful of widely publicised fatal accidents, allegations of sabotage and several mysterious disappearances of aircraft, led to a widespread loss of confidence in BSAA. The most famous of these incidents were the disappearance of two Avro Tudor aircraft in the waters of the Bermuda Triangle and the loss of an Avro Lancastrian in the Andes in 1947. What happened to the Avro Tudors remains a mystery, although there are theories as to what caused the disappearances. Part of the Lancastrian Star Dust has recently emerged from the Andean glacier in which it was entombed for over fifty years and the reason for the crash has now been revealed. This has led to a renewal of interest in BSAA. For a number of political and commercial reasons, these tragic occurrences were shamelessly exploited by the Ministry of Aviation and BOAC, and BSAA’s fleet was grounded. Without aircraft to fly, the airline was forced it into a merger with BOAC in 1949, thereby sealing its fate. There has never been a complete history of BSAA, although the histories of BOAC, BEA and British Airways have been well documented. The title, Fly with the Stars, is taken from the company's advertising slogan and the book itself will describe the airline's brief but full life, the challenges it faced in the post war boom in civil aviation, set against the background of the escalating Cold War, the Berlin Airlift, and the chicanery that eventually caused its demise. The book is written with the full cooperation of Air Vice-Marshal Don Bennett's son and many former BSAA pilots, cabin and ground crew. It will appeal not only to aviation enthusiasts, but also to those readers who enjoy tales of mystery and political intrigue, and it will fill a gap left in the history of British civil aviation.

256 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2007

About the author

Susan Ottaway was born in Windsor, brought up in Egham and educated at Sir William Perkins's Girls School in nearby Chertsey. The daughter of an aircraft engineer, she has had a lifelong enthusiasm for aeroplanes and books. She worked for four different airlines over a period of 20 years, mainly in the UK but also in Germany and Australia, and wrote her first book, a biography of Wing Commander Guy Gibson VC, before leaving the world of aviation. She then worked as a freelance editor and has since written six more books.

Her books include Violette Szabo: The Life That I Have, a biography of SOE agent Violette Szabo for which she personally interviewed Eileen Nearne. She has appeared on BBC national television to be interviewed about her work, and she took part in the four-part television series for the Discovery History Channel entitled George Cross Heroes.

Susan is a guest speaker on battlefield tours and in 2008 she delivered the Annual Dambuster Lecture at the Petwood Hotel, Woodhall Spa, home of the wartime 617 'Dambuster' Squadron.

- compiled from Andrew Lownie Literary Agency and Harper Collins