This an audio piece from Radio Sottens (RTS Radio). A very special coverage of an historic inauguration of a DC4 registered HB-ILA flying the Swiss flag. This Douglas aircraft produced in Santa Monica (California-USA) is put into circulation by Swissair from Geneva. The Geneva State Councillor Louis Casaï, in charge of cantonal infrastucture and his wife can be heard in this piece broadcasted in 1946 on Radio Sottens. The reporters follow the christening of this aircraft with more than 200 seats. A plane called "Genève".

In May 1947, following the American companies, Swissair opened the Geneva-New York air route. The inaugural flight of the company, the first flight over the Atlantic, was piloted by the Genevan captain Walter Borner. The weather on the other side of the Atlantic forced them to make two unscheduled stopovers. But on the return journey, it was a success, the line would be open for a long time. Zurich had planned to use the DC-4 "Genève" for this performance, as well as the PTT, but it was the "Zurich" that officiated... and conquered the North Atlantic.

Of course, those Douglas aircrafts became also known as the "UN shuttles" because they would do the translatic link between Geneva-Cointrin and New York Airport with a certain number of UN employees on board.

Photo taken from the Racholefield collection.