19 July 2013

SAA Museum Society - Rand Airport

The South African Airways Museum Society was founded in 1986 by individuals within South African Airways and interested outside parties with the aim of preserving the history of South African Airways as well as that of general civil aviation in South Africa. The Museum is based at the Transvaal Aviation Club at Rand Airport in Germiston. Historic items such as photographs, aircraft instruments, timetables and other important documentation are on display in the society's display hall. This is open to the public and the society regularly participates in open days to encourage particularly the younger generation of South Africans to take an interest in aviation as a potential career. 

The museum has a static display of aircraft including the Boeing 747-244B "Lebombo", 747-SP "Maluti", two Skymaster DC-4's, a Douglas DC-3, a Lockheed Lodestar, de Havilland Dove and even 2 simulators.

As per usual in the recent while, the time of day that I visited presented very harsh light and I was shooting into the sun a lot. This resulted in bright sun flares in some of the images but I wasn't really unhappy with the results. I was also shooting with an ultra wide angle lens to fit the aircraft into the frame so some traditional lines may of been slightly distorted.


This massive "chamber" is the compartment where one set of wheels of the Jumbo lifts up into.

They may not look big but wait until you stand next to a Jumbo's wheels!


The air sucking blades of the Jumbo's engine.
Douglas C-54D-15-DC

de Havilland DH 104
The B747 Simulator

Airbus A300 Simulator 




2 comments:

  1. Nice collection! As a fan, it's shocking to me that you allowed sunflares into your images, but to me.... it adds a beauty to the photo's! I love them, particularely the cockpit photo's and the engine blades! Well done as always!

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    Replies
    1. Sun flares often add to an image. I certainly don't remove them.

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