Flying Back in Time on the First Civilian Passenger Airplane

Ride along on a Microsoft Flight Simulator journey in a Farman F.60 Goliath on its historic 1919 route from Paris to London.

Patrick Chovanec

Friday, May 12, 2023 at 06:07 PM ET

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Farman F.60 Goliath [Courtesy: National Archives]

Key Takeaways:

The Farman F.60 Goliath, originally a WWI bomber, was repurposed by Henri Farman and his brothers to become the world's first civilian passenger airplane, pioneering commercial aviation.
It inaugurated the first international commercial air route between Paris (Le Bourget) and London (Croydon), with scheduled civilian flights beginning in 1920.
Early Goliath flights were challenging, expensive, and rudimentary (e.g., open cockpit, visual navigation, engine reliability), underscoring the pioneering and dangerous nature of early air travel.
A mid-air collision involving a Goliath in 1922 spurred critical safety innovations like right-of-way rules, radio communication, and improved pilot visibility, which are still fundamental to aviation today.

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Believe it or not, the inaugural flight of a bomber-turned-airliner first introduced the world to commercial aviation.

Today in Microsoft Flight Simulator, I’ll be flying the Farman F.60 Goliath, the world’s first civilian passenger airplane, on its historic route from Paris to London. And to tell this story, I’m using a mod that recreates the two airports, Le Bourget and Croydon, as they looked in the 1930s.