''Aviron'' Palestine Aviation Company was established in April 1936 in

Mandatory Palestine Mandatory Palestine was a British Empire, British geopolitical entity that existed between 1920 and 1948 in the Palestine (region), region of Palestine, and after 1922, under the terms of the League of Nations's Mandate for Palestine. After ...

. The company was intended to train pilots and then operate a mainly internal airline, which would serve the security needs of the

Yishuv The Yishuv (), HaYishuv Ha'ivri (), or HaYishuv HaYehudi Be'Eretz Yisra'el () was the community of Jews residing in Palestine prior to the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. The term came into use in the 1880s, when there were about 2 ...

, the Jewish community in Palestine.The Central Zionist Archives
Flights & Aviation
Retrieved 14 December 2017Degania Alef websit
Founding Figures: Yitzchak Ben-Yaakov
, Retrieved 14 December 2017

Name

''Aviron'' is the word for

airplane An airplane (American English), or aeroplane (Commonwealth English), informally plane, is a fixed-wing aircraft that is propelled forward by thrust from a jet engine, Propeller (aircraft), propeller, or rocket engine. Airplanes come in a vari ...

invented in 1908 either by

Eliezer Ben-Yehuda Eliezer Ben‑Yehuda (born Eliezer Yitzhak Perlman; 7 January 1858 – 16 December 1922) was a Russian–Jewish linguist, lexicographer, and journalist who immigrated to Jerusalem in 1881, when the Ottoman Empire ruled it. He is renowned as the ...

or by his son Itamar Ben-Avi, the first native speaker of

Modern Hebrew Modern Hebrew (, or ), also known as Israeli Hebrew or simply Hebrew, is the Standard language, standard form of the Hebrew language spoken today. It is the only surviving Canaanite language, as well as one of the List of languages by first w ...

. In the second half of 20th century, it fell out of use in favour of ''matos'', invented in 1928 by

Hayim Nahman Bialik Hayim Nahman Bialik (; January 9, 1873 – July 4, 1934) was a Jewish poet who wrote primarily in Hebrew language, Hebrew and Yiddish. Bialik is considered a pioneer of modern Hebrew poetry, part of the vanguard of Jewish thinkers who gave voice ...

History

The Aviron airline company was established in 1936 by

Dov Hoz Dov Hoz (; September 19, 1894 - December 29, 1940) was a leader of the Labor Zionism movement, one of the founders of the Haganah organization, and a pioneer of Israeli aviation. Biography Born in Orsha, Russian Empire, in 1894, Hoz immigrated to ...

and Yitzhak Ben Ya'akov, one of the first members of Degania, at the initiative of the

Histadrut Histadrut, fully the New General Workers' Federation () and until 1994 the General Federation of Labour in the Land of Israel (, ''HaHistadrut HaKlalit shel HaOvdim B'Eretz Yisrael''), is Israel's national trade union center and represents the m ...

trade union association and the

Jewish Agency The Jewish Agency for Israel (), formerly known as the Jewish Agency for Palestine, is the largest Jewish non-profit organization in the world. It was established in 1929 as the operative branch of the World Zionist Organization (WZO). As an ...

. At its beginnings, Aviron was based in three

kibbutz A kibbutz ( / , ; : kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1910, was Degania Alef, Degania. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economi ...

im in the northern Jordan Valley, with the flight school in the attic of the cowshed at

Degania Alef Degania Alef (, ) is a kibbutz in northern Israel. The Jewish communal settlement ('' kvutza'') was founded in 1910, making it the earliest Labor Zionist farming commune in the Land of Israel. Its status as "the mother of all kibbutzim" is some ...

, an improvised airstrip at Afikim, and a hangar at Ashdot Ya'akov. In 1938, Aviron opened a flight school and held its first graduation ceremony of fifteen Jewish pilots on 21 April 1939. Two years previously, in 1934, Zionist officials who dealt with Jewish immigration from Poland obtained from

David Ben-Gurion David Ben-Gurion ( ; ; born David Grün; 16 October 1886 – 1 December 1973) was the primary List of national founders, national founder and first Prime Minister of Israel, prime minister of the State of Israel. As head of the Jewish Agency ...

, who acted on behalf of the Jewish Agency, the money for buying a

de Havilland Tiger Moth The de Havilland DH.82 Tiger Moth is a 1930s British biplane designed by Geoffrey de Havilland and built by the de Havilland, de Havilland Aircraft Company. It was operated by the Royal Air Force (RAF) and other operators as a primary traine ...

. The airplane arrived in October that year, flown by a British instructor-pilot. During the

1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine A popular uprising by Palestinian Arabs in Mandatory Palestine against the British administration, later known as the Great Revolt, the Great Palestinian Revolt, or the Palestinian Revolution, lasted from 1936 until 1939. The movement sought i ...

, Aviron assisted the

Haganah Haganah ( , ) was the main Zionist political violence, Zionist paramilitary organization that operated for the Yishuv in the Mandatory Palestine, British Mandate for Palestine. It was founded in 1920 to defend the Yishuv's presence in the reg ...

in reconnaissance missions and the transfer of supplies and medical aid to otherwise inaccessible settlements. Besides two teaching planes, the company operated two aircraft with three passenger seats and two with two passenger seats, offering a daily service between Lydda,

Haifa Haifa ( ; , ; ) is the List of cities in Israel, third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropolitan area i ...

and Tiberias.

Gallery

File:Avironhoz.JPG, File:Aviron airline company Israel.jpg, 1947 in the British Mandate of Palestine

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aviron Flying School Aviation in Israel Defunct airlines of Israel

Name

History

Gallery

See also

References