The Curtiss Commando Page
The Curtiss Commando Page

Sanday & Co.

Operator Identification

  May 1924 to unknown date

  United States of America


TYPE: Non-aviation private company

IATA/ICAO CODES: Nil

HEADQUARTERS: New York, NY

FORMER NAME: Nil

SUBSEQUENT NAME: Nil

Operator History

Sanday & Co. was originally founded in 1880 by Samuel Sanday, a British Jewish grain merchant from Liverpool. Sanday's business was to provide European countries with grain imported from various parts of the world. He established purchasing offices in Bombay in 1887, in Karachi in 1890, in Argentina in 1896 and in Winnipeg in 1906. By the advent of World War I, Sanday had become a major grain importer for the UK. With the wartime increase in wheat demand, Sanday became the British buying agent for North America, and in 1916 it moved its headquarters to London. The grain import system established during the war remained for a few years, and by 1921 Samuel Sanday and his French competitor Louis Dreyfus were controlling a whopping 25% of all American grain exports. However, this monopoly was broken by the US governments as farmers were put back in control of the grain market, and by the end of 1923 Sanday & Co. was dissolved.

At that point, Sanday was a partnership between Samuel Sanday and his sons, and it seems that the empire was broken up between its partners. A noteworthy partner was Sanday's youngest son, William Sanday, a WWI flying ace. The American arm of Sanday & Co. was incorporated on 26 May 1924 in New York, NY from the ashes of Samuel Sanday's venture. It seems that this American entity got involved in maritime shipping. It also owned several airplanes after WWII, including Commandos, quite possibly acting as a broker. It is not known whether William Sanday was involved in that side of the business.

Commando Operations

1955* to March 1957

Sanday & Co. got involved in purchasing and reselling a few of the Commandos which had been smuggled to Israel by Al Schwimmer during the 1948 War of Independence. It later dealt ex-USAAF Commandos from Cairo to Fred Olsen via Boreas Corporation and to Riddle Airlines.

Commandos Operated

Last edited: 19/02/2020