SABCA S.11 SABCA S.11 The SABCA S.11 or SABCA S.XI was a prototype Belgian airliner of the 1930s. It was a three-engined high-winged monoplane intended for service in the Belgian Congo, but only a single example was built. In 1926, the Belgian government issued a specification for an all-metal trimotor airliner to replace the wooden Handley Page W.8 biplanes used by Belgian airline SABENA in the Belgian Congo. To meet this requirement, Sociétés Anonyme Belge de Constructions Aéronautiques (SABCA) offered a high-winged monoplane, the S.XI, designed by Henri Jullien, its chief engineer, which was intended to fly in 1928. The S.XI had
Sabena from Seaboard World Airlines, using them mainly on transatlantic routes. In the same period, there were experiments with helicopter passenger service using Sikorsky S-58 aircraft from Brussels to Antwerp, Rotterdam, Eindhoven and the Paris heliport at Issy-les-Moulineaux. 1960 saw the introduction of the Boeing 707-320 intercontinental jet for trans-Atlantic flights to New York. SABENA was mainland Europe's first airline to operate a jet across the Atlantic (BOAC had been flying jet transatlantic services using the de Havilland Comet 4 since 4 October 1958). One of Sabena's aircraft became the first Boeing 707 to crash while in commercial service when Flight