Sharjah: As part of celebrations commemorating the 80th anniversary of the first aircraft landing in Sharjah in October 5, 1932, an old fashioned aircraft has been flying over parts of the UAE.
Tomorrow the plane, an Auster, will take off from Sharjah International Airport and fly over Sharjah Creek and Buhaira until it finally lands near Al Mahatta Museum at 4pm.
The first aircraft to land in Sharjah was a Hanno H 42 (Hannibal Class) built by Handley Page. The plane belonged to British owned Imperial Airways and it landed at 4pm, October 5, 1932. It had four passengers on board plus its British captain, Horsey.
The aircraft came from Gwadar — which is now part of Pakistan — en route to Bahrain.
The aeroplane left the airport the next day, which was October 6, 1932.
Al Mahatta was the first airport in the region. Al Mahatta means “the station”.
Back in 1929, Imperial Airways proposed flying from England to India and needed somewhere between Bahrain and Muscat as a stop, and so Sharjah was chosen.
The British Government signed an agreement with Shaikh Sultan Bin Saqr Al Qasimi, Sharjah’s Ruler back then, and the airport — Al Mahatta — was built within two months.
Around Rs800 were paid monthly as rent for the airport and five rupees were paid every time an aeroplane used the airport.
In 1956 a new control tower was opened and later in the 1960s a new terminal was added and the airport became a training base for pilots.
Al Mahatta was also the first weather forecast centre in the UAE and Oman and weather data was first collected there in 1934.
Information on weather conditions was crucial for flights. Al Mahatta remained a forecast centre until 1976 and in 1977 the forecast centre was moved to the new Sharjah Airport in 1977.
The site’s transition from its time of operation as a landing strip, a Royal Air Force station and Sharjah’s first commercial airport to a museum took place in 1998.
Al Mahatta was operational until the new Sharjah International Airport opened in 1977.
Being used less and less, by the mid 1990’s, Al Mahatta was abandoned. The place was then restored and renamed Al Mahatta Flight Museum.
The first cinema in the region was also at Al Mahatta. It was established in 1949 by the Royal Air Force.
The museum retains its original architecture including the old watch tower.
It houses old aeroplane models and photos that take you through the history of flying in Sharjah and the world.
What is now known as King Abdul Aziz Street, was the runway that the airplanes used. The runway started near Al Mahatta, all the way down to King Faisal Mosque.
Part of the original asphalt where the aeroplanes used to land, is still there next to King Faisal Mosque, as His Highness Dr Shaikh Sultan Bin Mohammad Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah, has ordered it be left as is, in memory of the old airport.
