# Flight time between the US and Switzerland, 1940's **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 14, 2005, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flight-time-between-the-us-and-switzerland-1940s/321606 "2005-09-14T15:41:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Hombre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ecb155/32.png) [@Hombre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hombre)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2005, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flight-time-between-the-us-and-switzerland-1940s/321606/1 "2005-09-14T15:41:34Z")
How long would a flight take from the US to Switzerland in the 1940’s? Google turned up nothing for me. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2005, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flight-time-between-the-us-and-switzerland-1940s/321606/2 "2005-09-14T16:09:47Z")
How exact do you need this? I don’t believe leisure travelers could fly from the U.S. to Europe until 1947. I found an old ad for SAS and they quote a flight time of 14 hours from NYC to Glasgow and 19 hours to Stockholm and 22 1/2 hours to Helsinki. TWA had an ad saying that you could get from the US to Switzerland in “less than a day”. SAS was a DC-6 for flights in 1948 according to the ads. If you were flying from New York, I would assume that you would fly to Shannon or London and then either change planes or wait for refueling to take you the rest of the way. Presumably you could fly nonstop from London to Geneva. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2005, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flight-time-between-the-us-and-switzerland-1940s/321606/3 "2005-09-14T16:39:21Z")
> [@BobT](#): > > I don’t believe leisure travelers could fly from the U.S. to Europe until 1947. Pan Am’s famous [Clipper flying boats](http://washingtonhistory.org/wshs/columbia/articles/0203-a3.htm) offered New York-Lisbon-Marseilles service very briefly in 1939-'40. I can’t find a cite for run time, but I’d guesstimate 18-20 hours to Lisbon, probably a lengthy stop for fuel and stores, then a couple more hours to Marseilles. Whether there was a direct Marseilles-Geneva flight I have no idea. ---
**Author:** ![Hombre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ecb155/32.png) [@Hombre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hombre)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2005, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flight-time-between-the-us-and-switzerland-1940s/321606/4 "2005-09-14T19:06:18Z")
Bob, I need it for a grant paper my wife is writing. I can usually find this stuff on my own but this proved elusive. Thanks all. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2005, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flight-time-between-the-us-and-switzerland-1940s/321606/5 "2005-09-14T19:12:19Z")
As an example, a Douglas DC-6 had a cruising speed of 309 mph according to [this](http://flyaow.com/planes/dc6aircraftspecifications.htm) site. Since that’s only a little better than half the speed of a jetliner, you can figure that it took at least twice as long to reach Switzerland from the U.S. as it does today, especially when you factor in the stops. ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2005, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flight-time-between-the-us-and-switzerland-1940s/321606/6 "2005-09-14T20:11:41Z")
What time in the 1940s? Obviously during World War II, you just couldn’t make that flight. The 1947 date I was referring to was the first year after WWII when leisure travel on airplanes to Europe was permitted again. ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2005, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flight-time-between-the-us-and-switzerland-1940s/321606/7 "2005-09-14T20:21:57Z")
I have a schedule for Swissair from the October 1948 Official Airline Guide. I’m unsure of the time changes at the time, but assume that there is no DST in any stop. The flight would leave New York at 1100. It would land in Gander, Newfoundland at 2000. The next stop would be Shannon, Ireland and the flight would arrive at 0830. Then you would be at Shannon for 90 minutes and leave again at 1000. You would arrive in Zurich at 1430 or Geneva at 1400 depending upon which flight you took.