26 October 2012

S.A.I.D.E an Egyptian airline in 1947





S.A.I.D.E pronounced in Arabic سعيدة means Happy :)

The private airline was established in 1947 fifteen years after EgyptAir was set up. The company was established by an Egyptian businessman in cooperation with an Italian businessman who was working at Fiat
at the time. The company only lasted  5 years and was acquired by EgyptAir in December 1952.
The company fleet consisted of Italian planes  (Savoia Marchetti) SM 95C and its first domestic flights were from Cairo to Alexandria, and international flights were to Athens and Rome.
You can see the company logo here above and the  name SAIDE (happy) coming from the first letters of the French words making up the company name: Service Aeriens Internationaux D'Egypte -  S.A.I.D.E





Savoia Marchetti SM-95 C




Four SM-95s were bought by SAIDE. They were used in a Cairo-Rome-Paris route.

The SM-95C was similar to other contemporary airliners, but the construction was mixed. Welded steel was used for the fuselage structure, with light alloy covering fitted to the nose, underside and rear fuselage, and fabric covering for the fuselage sides and roof. The three-spar wing was also of wooden construction, with plywood skinning. The engines drove three-bladed metal Constant speed propellers. The two pilots sat side-by-side in an enclosed cockpit, while behind them sat the Flight engineer (on the left) and radio operator (on the right). Behind the cockpit, there was normally seating for 20-30 passengers.




Also the Fiat G.212s were purchased by the Egyptian airline SAIDE, who received three aircraft in 1948. The G.212 accommodated 34 passengers, using the Pratt & Whitney R-1830 Twin Wasp engines.




1 comment:

Anonymous said...

My aunts flew SAIDE from Cairo to Rome in the 1940s on the Italian 3 engine aircraft with a stop in Athens.

They chose SAIDE because it was cheaper than TWA.