The risk of pioneering: Private interests, the State, and the launching of civil aviation in Sweden. The case of SLA 1918-23

摘要

The making and running of one of the early Swedish civil aviation companies – Svenska Lufttrafikaktiebolaget 1919–23 – show that military representatives and private entrepreneurs were highly important during this phase. We state that the making of this early civil aviation company in Sweden had not been possible without close personal ties between bankers and entrepreneurs, as well as their beliefs in the future of civil aviation as a natural and an evident part of Swedish infrastructure. However, the enterprise was indeed pioneering the field and faced the 1920–23 Swedish crisis. Svenska Lufttrafikaktiebolaget did not survive, despite minor subsidies. The article shows that the initial position of State involvement regarding civil aviation was not a clear-cut matter in the late 1910s and early 1920s. We claim that only later in the 1920s the Swedish State properly supported civil aviation.