History

Mission Aviation Fellowship was formed in 1945 by former World War II air force personnel who had the vision of using aircraft for good rather than for death or destruction. For over 60 years Mission Aviation Fellowship has been speeding physical and spiritual help to people in some of the most remote and isolated regions of the world. Without MAF's light aircraft, countless thousands of men, women and children would today be without adequate food, clean water, medical care, and Christian hope.

From the first twin-engine four-seat Gemini aircraft in 1948 which took off from Croydon Airport, today MAF has grown to a worldwide fleet of over 120 aircraft operating in more than 30 countries.

MAF's first operational flight in Sudan in 1950 was a one-aircraft operation with a DeHavilland Dragon Rapide. Over the decades MAF have opened up many bases around the world, including: Kenya, Ethiopia, Haiti, Ecuador, Chad, Tanzania, Uganda, Papua New Guinea, Madagascar, Mongolia and Bangladesh. MAF aircraft go where there are emergency needs, and have been relied upon in times of famine in Chad, Ethiopia and Kenya, the earthquake in Irian Jaya, in Indonesia, the Mozambique floods, the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami and several east African refugee crises.

History in the making. The Miles Gemini aircraft at Croydon Airport on 13 January 1948, just before take-off for Africa. 041208 / MAF Archive Image 3.tifIn 1948, a missionary and MAF pilot Hennie Steyn help a patient flown to Doro, Sudan, from the plane. 041208/MAF Archive Image 2.tif

A De Havilland Rapide, MAF's first aircraft to be fully operational in Africa, at Doro airstrip. c.1950  MAF_01.06.05_229.tif

Mission Aviation Fellowship

Castle Hill Avenue, FOLKESTONE, CT20 2TN UK, Tel: 0845 850 9505

Registered Charity Number 1064598 (England & Wales) and SC039107 (Scotland)

Website by Baigent