1945

Mission Aviation Fellowship was founded after World War 2 by a group of Christian pilots from Britain, America, Canada, New Zealand and Australia

1946

MAF’s  (originally called Christian Airmen’s Missionary Fellowship) first flight by Betty Greene to Mexico. MAF was founded in UK and Australia in the next few years.

1950

South African pilot Steve Stevens (and wife Kay) was the first MAF SA pilot joining the MAF programme in Sudan, following his service as a pilot in World War II.

1952

Gordon Marshall, ex-SA Air Force pilot, (and his wife Jean) joined MAF when Steve Stevens suffered from a detached retina. Gordon developed operational flight standards and orientation programmes for new pilots. Steve Stevens continued with fundraising initiatives in the UK and church presentations.

1956

MAF pilot Nate Saint killed in Ecuador by Waorani tribesmen

1970

David (and wife Beryl) Luke was the first chairman of the MAF SA council and developed the MAF SA programme. Gordon returned to South Africa and established MAF in his home country, supporting medical work and administrative needs of the mission organisations based in Transkei

1971

Flying started with a Cessna 180 aircraft which had been transferred from the MAF programme in Ethiopia

1972

Jim Cole-Rous was appointed full-time Deputation Secretary for MAF SA and later, accompanied by his wife Rowena, took over the running of the programme in Transkei.

Stuart Kinh was General Director of MAF UK and MAF SA

MAF SA BECAME INDEPENDENT

1974

Dave and Merle Richardson joined MAF SA

1976

Cessna 185 aircraft was purchased which was funded by the Transkei Government

1979

Transkei programme ended

1980

Dave and Merle Richardson started the Lesotho programme, however due to the political situation in South Africa at the time; MAF SA invited MAF USA to assume responsibility for this programme.

Hennie&AdriSteyn who served in Sudan and East Africa and were later transferred back to South Africa where they assisted in the Transkei work.  Hennie provided piloting and technical skills and in 1980, superseded Dave Luke as Chairman of the MAF SA Council as a result of Dave’s ill health.  Beryl Luke continued with her bookkeeping duties.

1982

Gordon Marshall was appointed Director of MAF SA

MAF SA and MAF US carried out a further survey of missions in Transkei.

1983

MAF US restarted the Transkei programme using the Cessna 185

1984

Ron (&Mansel) Bennett replaced HennieSteyn as Chairman of the MAF SA Council. Due to lack of sufficient interest from the missions working in Transkei, the Transkei programme was closed and the aircraft returned to Lesotho.

1987

New programme was started in the Transvaal using the same aircraft, this time on loan for two years

1989

Flying hours slowly increased and exceeded 100 hours. The Cessna 185 was then sold and a Piper Cherokee 6 was purchased. During the years that followed flying continued and the programme slowly gathered strength.

1993

MAF Europe responded to a request for help from MAF SA and seconded Tom and Tineke de Waal to their head office in Edenvale where Tom became the Director of MAF SA

1994

After the democratic elections, flying into other parts of Africa became the main focus of the MAF South Africa programme as South African churches and mission organisations were now able to move into neighbouring countries such as Botswana, Zambia, Mozambique, Namibia and Malawi.

1996

Piper Cherokee aircraft was sold and with the help of MAF Canada was replaced with a Cessna 210. A second Cessna 210 was purchased in 1997 with funds from MAF UK.

1997

A second Cessna 210 purchased with funds from MAF UK

2000

John (& Tanya) Boyd became Director of MAFSA, and the Managing Director of Mission Aviation Service (MAS)

2001

John Boyd was actively involved with a significant and strategic donation from John & Rosemary Lancaster from the UK. This generous gift enabled the purchase of a Cessna 208B Caravan aircraft (ESTER) and the construction of hangar and office facilities at Lanseria International Airport in Johannesburg.  This aircraft started flying in July 2001 and in the first year flew 556 hours. (Two-thirds of this was commercial flying which helped to subsidise the cost for missions and created good relationships for the future use of the aircraft.)  John Boyd was also instrumental in initiating a fund-raising project with MAF Scotland for the purchase of a second Cessna 208B (SCOTTY), aptly named ‘Caledonian Connection’. 

2003

Mark Faus (MAFC) was appointed the CEO of MAF SA and Programme Manager of the flight operation, Mission Aviation Services (MAS).

2005

Butch Judge was appointed the CEO of MAF SA and Programme Manager of the flight operation, Mission Aviation Services (MAS)

2007

Stuart Fitch took over as the Programme Manager for MAS.

MAF International was fully constituted as a global ministry incorporating all major MAF organisations

2008

MAF SA acquired a Cessna 206 from MAF Chad (ANNA)

Scotty was loaned to MAF UGANDA

2009

Leon Prinsloo was appointed the CEO of MAF SA and Programme Manager of the flight operation, Mission Aviation Services (MAS). 

The Flying for Life initiative was launched and regular flights to Venda, Limpopo began in order to uplift poor rural communities in a sustainable way.