Straits Air Freight Express

Straits Air Freight Express (SAFE) was a cargo airline, established in 1950, named for its Cook Strait focus and connecting the North Island and South Islands of New Zealand's railway systems from the 1950s to the 1970s. The company was renamed Safe Air Limited in 1966 and diversified into aviation maintenance. In 1972 it was bought by the National Airways Corporation, which then merged with Air New Zealand. Safe Air continued to be operated as an independent entity by both owners. It ceased flying in 1990, but has continued to expand as a maintenance facility and now employs approximately 350 staff. In 2015 it was bought by the Australian arm of Airbus.[1]

Logo of Safe Air Limited
SAFE Bristol 170 series 31 in 1955 after rebuilding its fuselage with no windows. The badge near the door reads "NZR Rail Air"
Bristol Freighter unloading at Nelson, November 5 1952
Armstrong Whitworth AW.650 Argosy, ZK-SAE, Merchant Enterprise in Blenheim, New Zealand.
Bristol Freighter on approach to Wellington, New Zealand, 1981
Bristol Freighter on display in Nelson city, 2012

Rail Air

In 1947, New Zealand Railways Department (NZR) and the Royal New Zealand Air Force began flying between Paraparaumu and Blenheim with a service that came to be known as Rail Air.[2] SAFE took over the service from the RNZAF in 1950.[3] Much of NZR's inter-island freight moved to its new Inter-island rail ferry service from 1962 with the introduction of the GMV Aramoana, but the Rail Air service survived until December 1983.[4][5]

Aircraft operated

The main aircraft type that the company operated was the Bristol Type 170 Freighter Mk.31. The first two examples were delivered in mid-1951.[6] The "cargon" system was designed in-house – a wheeled metal pallet and transfer system using modified railway flatcars to allow trucked loads to be transferred directly into the nose doorway of the tail-wheeled aircraft.[7] This reduced the turn-around time of flights to about 15 minutes.[3] 53,777 tons were carried between Woodbourne and Papaparaumu in 1961/62, but declined 25% next year, when Aramoana started the Interislander. The route closed in 1983.[8] Eleven Bristol 170s were still in operation with SAFE in 1977.[6]

The company also operated two larger Armstrong Whitworth AW.650 Argosy four-engined turbine propellor freighter aircraft from the 1970s.[9]

Chatham Islands Passenger Services

New Zealand's most eastern islands, the Chatham Islands were linked with the main islands of New Zealand with combined air freight and passenger service using a unique removable passenger pod that was placed into the hold of their Bristol Freighter aircraft. Extra sound insulation was used to drown out the Bristol's Hercules engines and earplugs were provided. Windows in the pod lined up with those in the fuselage. The flight time was approximately three hours.

In 1982 when the paved runway at Tu-uta Point was built, Argosy aircraft were placed into the Chathams' route with a more comfortable passenger pod based on the cabin of a Boeing 737. The pod still exists today, placed in the hold of ZK-SAE on static display at Blenheim. When flying operations ceased in 1990 Air New Zealand continued operations with other aircraft, Air Chathams was founded to keep the air route open when Air New Zealand pulled out in 1992.

List of aircraft operated by Straits Air Freight Express
Aircraft Introduced Retired Notes
Armstrong Whitworth AW 650 Argosy Series 22219731990Three aircraft
Bristol Freighter Mk 311951198622 aircraft
Curtiss C-46D19511951Four aircraft leased from Civil Air Transport in Taiwan.
Fokker F-27-400QC Friendship19891990One aircraft leased from Ansett Australia.

References
  1. van den Bergh, Roeland (22 June 2015). "Air New Zealand sells Blenheim's Safe Air to Airbus". Stuff.co.nz. Retrieved 27 June 2015.
  2. Troup 1973, p. 205.
  3. "Strong affections for Safe Air". Marlborough Express. 11 November 2010. Retrieved 18 October 2018.
  4. Bromby 2003, p. 152.
  5. Leitch & Stott 1988, p. 153.
  6. Davis & Piercy 1977, p. 4.
  7. MacIntyre, David (1983). Cook's wild strait the interisland story. A.H. & A.W. Reed ltd. p. 114. ISBN 0589014498.
  8. Hurst, Tony (April 2018). "Main North Line". Railway Observer. 348: 5.
  9. Eastwood & Roach 1998, p. 32.

Bibliography
  • Bromby, Robin (2003). Rails that built a Nation: An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand Railways. Wellington: Grantham House. ISBN 1-86934-080-9.
  • Davis, P.W.; Piercy, S. (1977). Bristol 170, Britannia and Canadian Developments. Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. ISBN 0-85130-054-5.
  • Eastwood, Tony; Roach, John (1998). Turbo Prop Airliner Production List. The Aviation Hobby Shop. ISBN 0-907178-69-3.
  • Troup, Gordon, ed. (1973). Steel Roads of New Zealand: An Illustrated Survey. A.H. & A.W. Reed. ISBN 0-589-00735-1.
  • Stott, Bob; Leitch, David (1988). New Zealand Railways: The First 125 Years. Auckland: Heinemann Reed. p. 176. ISBN 0-7900-0000-8.
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