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the Council for the lease of land at Maitland for the take-off and landing of any aircraft
which the Department or other departments of state might require, and also the right to

erect hangars and other markings. This authority was given but no action followed.
(Corporation of the City of Cape Town, 1922).

By the mid-20s the development of lighter-than-air craft, airships, had reached an
advanced level and the Imperial Government decided that an international airship

service should be established. A South African base at sea level was required and Cape
Town was chosen to fit this purpose. An airship would be visiting Cape Town in late

1928 – early 1929 and the base needed to be ready. Maitland met the requirements of
scale, lack of topographic and other obstructions, and proximity to the city and the

Council was therefore enthusiastic about participating in the project. However, a series

of airship disasters caused the programme to be scrapped and the project lapsed.

In 1929 the SA Government decided that airports should be established in all major

cities, and so the previous investigations into Maitland provided the basis for the
Council decision, of 26 September 1929, that this site should be developed as Cape

Town Aerodrome. Lot “S”, an area of 270 morgen, was sold by the Government to the
City for one shilling. The Council determined that it would be known as Capetown

Aerodrome but in Council Minutes it was also referred to as Wingfield Aerodrome.

The airport came into use before its official opening. The first mail flight from England

along the Cairo – Cape route arrived at Wingfield on 21 December 1931 in a DH 66
Hercules of Imperial Airways, named “City of Karachi”. The official opening took

place on 27 January 1932 and was marked by the departure of the first official mail to
London in the “City of Karachi”. The first official arrival of mail was on 2 February

1932 in the same aircraft. The flight to Cape Town took about nine days. (Fig. 3.42). On
both occasions the pilot was Captain R. F. Caspareuthus. (Fig. 3.43). He was born in

Paarl in 1899, schooled at Rondebosch Boys and SACS, and had been one of “Miller’s

Boys” and seen action over France in 1918. In 1930 he had made a solo flight from
England to Cape Town. He later flew the flying boats of the Empire Mail Service,