Cabo Ruivo Seaplane Base ( pt, Aeroporto Marítimo de Cabo Ruivo) was an

international airport An international airport is an airport with customs and border control facilities enabling passengers to travel between countries around the world. International airports are usually larger than domestic airports and they must feature longer ...

for

seaplane A seaplane is a powered fixed-wing aircraft capable of takeoff, taking off and water landing, landing (alighting) on water.Gunston, "The Cambridge Aerospace Dictionary", 2009. Seaplanes are usually divided into two categories based on their tec ...

s located in the city of Lisbon, the capital of

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, In recognized minority languages of Portugal: :* mwl, República Pertuesa is a country located on the Iberian Peninsula, in Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Macaronesian ...

. It takes its name from the Lisbon neighbourhood of Cabo Ruivo. The airport was, especially throughout the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, a major gateway and escape route for intercontinental airtravel.

History

In the 1930s, the Portuguese Government decided to replace the Campo Internacional de Aterragem, at Alverca, with two new airports nearer to Lisbon's city center: today's

Lisbon Portela Airport Humberto Delgado Airport , informally Lisbon Airport and formally Portela Airport, is an international airport located northeast of the city centre of Lisbon, the capital of Portugal. The airport is the main international gateway to Portugal ...

and the Cabo Ruivo Seaplane Base on the Tagus River, which handled transatlantic flights operated with seaplanes. Pan Am established its provisional seaplane base in Cabo Ruivo in 1938, at the southeast edge of today's

Parque das Nações The Parque das Nações (; en, Park of the Nations), colloquially known as Expo (as the site of the 1998 Lisbon World Exposition), is a ''freguesia'' (civil parish) of Lisbon, the capital of Portugal. Located in eastern Lisbon, Parque das Naçõ ...

. In 1942, the Portuguese Government decided to create a proper air-marine base, initially intended to be located on the same site. Eventually, it was decided to build the airport structures around the Doca dos Olivais., two miles further up the Tagus. Avenida de Berlim, a major road, was built to connect the land and sea airports. The US intercontinental airline

Pan American World Airways Pan American World Airways, originally founded as Pan American Airways and commonly known as Pan Am, was an American airline that was the principal and largest international air carrier and unofficial overseas flag carrier of the United State ...

, which was a major promoter of the airport's construction, used the airport as a hub for its transatlantic flights until 1945. The first scheduled commercial passenger flight, from Port Washington, landed on 29 June 1939 on the water airstrip of the Cabo Ruivo Seaplane Base. This Atlantic flight from New York to Lisbon was operated by a Boeing 314 "Dixie Clipper" of Pan American World Airways, with 22 passengers and 11 crew members on board. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, the transatlantic clippers provided an escape route for refugees from Continental Europe, taking advantage of Portugal's neutral stance in the war. With the enormous increase in the importance of terrestrial air traffic the era of seaplanes ended and the flight operations in Cabo Ruivo were discontinued in the late 1950s. The dock was redeveloped in the context of Lisbon's 1998 World Expo. Today, the dock is at the center of the

, where the

Lisbon Oceanarium The Lisbon Oceanarium ( pt, Oceanário de Lisboa, ) is an oceanarium in Lisbon, Portugal. It is located in the ''Parque das Nações'', which was the exhibition grounds for the Expo '98. It is one of the largest indoor aquariums in Europe. Archi ...

is located.

Accidents and incidents

On 22 February 1943, the ''Yankee Clipper'' seaplane of Pan American World Airways was destroyed in a crash while landing on the Tagus River. 24 of the 39 occupants were killed. In 1958, a

Martin PBM-5 Mariner The Martin PBM Mariner was an American patrol bomber flying boat of World War II and the early Cold War era. It was designed to complement the Consolidated PBY Catalina and PB2Y Coronado in service. A total of 1,366 PBMs were built, with the ...

crashed on an outbound flight to Madeira, about an hour after taking off from Cabo Ruivo."ASN Aircraft accident Martin PBM-5 Mariner CS-THB Lisbon, Portugal"
''Aviation Safety Network''. 9 November 1958.

References

External links

History of the Airport
(PDF-file; 604 kB) from the Associação Náutica da Marina do Parque das Nações (in Portuguese)

(in Portuguese) {{authority control Airports in Portugal Buildings and structures in Lisbon Defunct airports Transport in Lisbon