Palmietfontein Airport was a wartime air force base which was converted to a temporary airport to serve Johannesburg whilst the new airport, Jan Smuts Airport, was being built. The airport serving Johannesburg at the time, Rand Airport, was unable to accommodate the size of aircraft to be operated on a new service to Great Britain. In 1948, South African Airways moved its terminal to Palmietfontein Airport. Several historical flights terminated at Palmietfontein Airport. A Qantas AirwaysAvro Lancastrian completed an unprecedented flight from Sydney's Kingsford Smith Airport in Australia to Palmietfontein, landing on 20 November 1948 at 15h15, and having been in the air a total of 41 hours and 52 minutes at an average speed of. En-route stops were made at Perth, Cocos Islands and Mauritius. The objective, to establish viable air links between South Africa and Australia, had been accomplished. The world’s first passenger jet service took place on 3 May 1952 when a BOACde Havilland Comet 1 landed at Palmietfontein on a flight from the UK.
Airport layout
There were three runways, the relative positions of which formed a triangle. Runway 17/35 was the longest, being and. Runway 04/22 was and runway 13/31 was. Both 17/35 and 04/22 were tarred; 13/31 was grass. The apron and control tower were situated to the west of runway 04/22. The airport elevation was given as. The information is derived from an old map and airport layout diagram courtesy of E. Du Plessis.
Aircraft types that operated to and from Palmietfontein
On 5 January 1948, a Lockheed 18-08-01 Lodestar, ZS-ASW, was damaged beyond repair when it struck a water drain after running off the runway during the landing rollout.
Aircraft bound to or from Palmietfontein
On 15 May 1948, a Douglas C-49K ZS-BWY, was en route to Palmietfontein from Stamford Hill Airport, Durban, when it crashed into a hill in bad weather with the loss of all 13 on board.
On 15 September 1952, a South African Airways Douglas C-47A-30-DL ZS-AVI with 19 occupants was written off when they landed at Carolina after becoming lost on a flight from Livingstone, Zambia to Palmietfontein. The landing occurred at night and the strip was unlighted. There were no fatalities.
Palmietfontein today
Palmietfontein was transformed into a motor racing circuit for the 1956 Rand Grand Prix, which was won by Peter Whitehead. The township of Katlehong was eventually established on the site, although parts of the original runway are still visible on Google Maps to this day.
