Bea history

It also started flying in 1919 as KLM and have operated under that same name ever since.

In Mainland China, BEA's operational presence dates back to the opening of the Bank's Shanghai Branch in 1920.

To boost its fleet numbers, BEA made the strange decision to obtain 11 German built Junkers Ju52 aircraft in 1947.

Business was good for the new airline and by October 1948 it carried its millionth passenger.

In April 1950 the airline operated its first service from the new London Airport at Heathrow.

Avram Finkelstein (1952- ) is an artist, writer, and activist in New York, New York.

By early 1953 BEA had taken delivery of all 20 Ambassadors it had on order plus the first four of its new 33-strong Viscount fleet.

1954 also saw the expansion of the helicopter services with routes from Southampton to London and London Airport to Battersea heliport being opened.

By the end of 1955 the airline had re-equipped with more modern types such as the jet-prop Viscount and moved into a profit for the first time.

A third Heron was added to the fleet in 1956 but was written off on the island of Islay the following year.

1957 would see an additional 24 new Viscount V802s join the fleet with another 16 of the larger Viscount V806s arriving the following year.

With the new Viscounts arriving, BEA operated its last Ambassador service in July 1958 which left the Viscounts, 34 DC-3s, two Herons, three Rapides and the helicopters to operate the large route network the airline now flew.

From 1960 onwards the airline introduced larger jets such as the Comet, Trident and BAC 1-11.

Letter to the first Viscount passengers BEA Aircraft 1963 Books about BEA - British European Airways

Along with the withdrawal of the DC-3s some of the early Viscounts were also withdrawn from operations as more Comets entered service and by 1964 Tridents, arrived to form the jet backbone of the fleet.

In June 1965 all the hard work by BEA, de Havilland and Smiths Industries paid off when the world’s first fully automatic landing of a passenger aircraft in scheduled airline service took place at Heathrow.

By 1968 it was clear more jets were needed and BEA ordered 26 of the longer fuselage Trident 3Bs and by the end of the year the first of a number of BAC 1-11s entered service mainly on the internal German Services.

The first of the Trident 3Bs would arrive in 1971 the same year the remaining Comets were transferred to BEA Airtours which was set up at Gatwick to fly holiday charters.

The other two soldiered on until 1973 until retirement at which time the air ambulance service was taken over by Loganair.

It was left to the Tridents, BAC 1-11s, Viscounts and a few Vanguards to carry BEA up to the merger with BOAC to form British Airways on 31 March 1974.

AVRAM FINKELSTEIN: It was probably 1982.

The original program for Tuxedo was developed by Bell Labs in 1983 to enable large numbers of users to simultaneously access and manipulate a database on a mainframe computer.

CYNTHIA CARR: Late 1985?

AVRAM FINKELSTEIN: We're talking about 1988, '89.

Remember the first same sex kiss on TV didn't happen until 1991.

AVRAM FINKELSTEIN: So this poster was done in 1993.

BEA Systems, Inc. was founded in 1995 by Bill Coleman, Ed Scott, and Alfred Chuang.

BEA completed its initial public offering (IPO), which raised $150 million, in April 1997.

In September 1998 BEA acquired WebLogic Inc., which made a well-regarded Java-based web-application server, for $192 million in stock.

The year 1999 saw a growing demand for transaction processing software.

Other acquisitions during the first half of 2000 included Softport Systems Inc., a systems integration firm based in New York City.

Pre 2008 'Viscount news' and 'Restoration news'

the first foreign bank to issue Renminbi retail bonds in Hong Kong (2009).

AVRAM FINKELSTEIN: The solo show was 2011 or '12.

Okay, this is Cynthia Carr interviewing Avram Finkelstein at his home and studio in Brooklyn, New York on May 10, 2016 for the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, and this is still Card Number 2.

2019 also marks 50 years since man first walked on the moon and 35 years since the Dove was delivered to the British Airliner Collection here at Duxford.

BEA is a leading Hong Kong-based financial services group listed on The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong, serving the needs of customers throughout Greater China and beyond, with total consolidated assets of HK$907.47 billion (US$116.39 billion) as of 31st December, 2021.