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One sheet vintage travel poster, titled
"Fly to South Africa by BOAC & SAA", was created by the notable British painter and illustrator Frank Wootton. It is a lithograph produced in the early 1950s, often cited as circa 1952.
Poster Details
Artist: Frank Wootton (1911–1998), known as "The Dean of Aviation Art".
Airlines: The poster advertises flights by the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) in association with South African Airways (SAA).
Historical Context: The poster promoted the "Springbok Service," a joint operation between the airlines. In 1952, SAA became the first non-European airline to operate passenger jet services using chartered de Havilland Comet aircraft from BOAC, which dramatically reduced travel time between London and Johannesburg to around 24 hours.
Artwork Description: The illustration depicts people in traditional attire playing drums and dancing, with a BOAC aircraft flying overhead against a blue sky.
The aircraft featured in the poster is a
Canadair Argonaut.
While the first jet service on the London to Johannesburg "Springbok Service" route, inaugurated in 1952, was famously operated by the de Havilland Comet jetliner, the aircraft depicted in this specific poster is the propeller-driven Argonaut. The Argonaut was a modified Douglas DC-4 built in Canada, powered by Rolls-Royce Merlin engines, and it was used by BOAC for its African routes around the same era as the poster's creation (circa 1952). |
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