Flug : tímarit um flugmál - 01.03.1955, Page 41

lion in Iceland, we are now back to the beginning
of the history of the Civil Aviation Administration.
The Parliament recognized the fact that aviation
was to play a major part in Icelandic transportation
in the years to come. It furtlier felt that it was nec-
essary for the Goverment to aid and promote avia-
tion for the benefit of the public and therefore
established the agency referred to in the beginn-
ing of this article.
On March 15, 1945, Mr. Erling Ellingsen was
appointed the first Director of Civil Aviation in
Iceland. Mr. Ellingsen had been a sucessful eng-
ineer and of late been engaged in business rnanage-
ment, and had thus excellent general experience
for his position altliough he had had little conn-
ection with aviation activities.
To aid him in that respect he employed the first
Icelandic pilot, Mr. Sigurður Jónsson, who had
previously been with Flugfélag íslands 110. 2 and 3.
From this rather diminutive staff of two, the
Civil Aviation Administration has in ten years
grown appreciably to employ some 165 people to-
clay.
Before proceeding with a brief account. of the
main efforts, in which the CAA has been engaged,
it is perhaps appropriate to mention here the major
clianges, which have taken place in the structure
of the CAA since its concept in 1945.
In 1947 the Aeronautics Board was established to
spurvise, under the direction of the Ministry of
Aviation, all aviation activities in the country. The
chairman of the Board, which comprises five rnemb-
ers, is Mr. Agnar Kofoed-Hansen, who was the ad-
viser on aeronautics before 1945 and ivho with his
untiring efforts had been primus motor in reviving
the aviation and in establishing Flugfélag Akureyr-
ar en 1937.
(For reasons of simplicity, the Board wM not be
referred to specifically in this article, but included
under the general term Civil Aviation Administra-
tion (CAA) as will in fact all persons associated
ivith the CAA, rather than mentioning the indivi-
dual names, however commendable the may be.)
After further changes in the CAA, Mr. Ellingsen
left the Civil Aviation Administration in 1951.
The present Director General of Civil Aviation
is Mr. Agnar Kofoed-Hansen.
The first task to be undertaken by the newly
formed CAA in 1945 was to license the aircraft
ivhich were in the country at the tirne and also
the flying personnel ivhich already was in Iceland
and a number of pilots who zuere coming back
home after their training abroad.
Along with this and a great number of initial
preparations associated with the infant agency, the
CAA started preparing for the first major airport
construction to be undertaken by Icelandic aut-
horities. Tliis was the construction of the airfield
at Vestmannaeyjar, an isolated community on a
rocky island south of Iceland, where many people
considered airfield construction to be impracti-
cable. This was successfully done, however, and
zvith the air transportation reaching the island, tlie
agelong isolation was abruptly brolien.
Although the airfield at Vestmannaeyjar zvas the
first one to be built by Icelandic authorities, there
were a few other aerodromes in the country, zvhich
had been built during the war by the British and
American military forces.
The most notable of these were the two inter-
national aerodromes at Reykjavik and Keflavik.
With the departure of the British forces in July
1946, the Icelandic CAA tooli over Reykjavik Air-
port. As can be readily understood, a great effort
zvas required in relieving the Royal AirForce of their
duties and training Icelandic personnel in the
operation of the airport.
The same applied to Keflavík Airport, which
was handed over by the US military forces in
October 1946. The situation was in this case some-
what different, as the operation of the airport was
still, to a great extent in the hands of the US per-
sonnel, in accordance zvith an Icelandic-US agree-
ment.
With all these projects under zvay more or less
simultaneously, it is no wonder that the young
agency zvas too occupied to divert its attention
much to other phases of aviation. Still this had to
be done.
At its first Route Service Conference, at Dublin
in March 1946, the International Civil Aviation Org-
anization (ICAO) requested Iceland to undertake
the Oceanic Air Traffic C.ontrol over a part of the
North Atlantic. The CAA organized their OATC
that year and the service was opened on Novemb-
er Ist in tlze control tower in Reykjavik, zvhere
it has been ever since.
In connection with the oceanic control, the CAA
originally took over and operated the RAF radio
communications station at Reykjavík Airport. That
arrangement, however, zvas found impracticable,
so the communications centre was taken over by the
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