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SAA took delivery of their first DC-4 Skymaster in 1946. A service was introduced between Johannesburg and Cape Town on 1 May 1946.

Later the Skymasters were introduced on the Springbok Service from Johannesburg to London, to supplement the joint SAA-BOAC Avro York flights. The Skymaster flight on the route Johannesburg-Nairobi-Khartoum-Tripoli-Hurne (near Bournemouth in England) took about 36 hours. When in-flight entertainment was introduced to the Springbok Service it took form of film shows on certain DC-4’s, which was later extended to all Skymasters on the route.

The delivery of four Lockheed L749A Constellation aircraft in 1950, signalled the end of an era for the Skymasters on the Springbok Service and they were rescheduled to handle all major domestic and regional services. The DC-4’s were retired from SAA service during the mid 1960’s, and several were sold to the South African Air Force.

During 1991 the SAAF began phasing out the DC-4 and in 1992, SAA bought a DC-4 back from the Air Force. It was “Lebombo”. She re-entered service with SAA on 8 April 1993, exactly 46 years after it rolled off the Douglas assembly line in 1947. ZS-BMH was the last DC-4 ever built.

In July 1994 Lebombo flew to the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) Fly-in at Oshkosh, Wisconsin in the US. The journey to Oshkosh was over 15 000 kilometres and she set a new world record for the longest, time and distance, propliner flight in one direction, with an unchanged passenger group. Lebombo did SAA proud by winning the award for best transport aircraft at the show.

A second DC-4, ZS-AUB, “Outeniqua”, was later added to the Historic Flight fleet and is painted in the 1960’s "Orange Tail” livery.

In service with SAA, the Skymasters flew no less than 209 017 hours, covering more than 41 million miles.

Powered by four Pratt & Whitney R2000 radial piston engines, the two DC-4’s are the only two passenger-licensed Douglas DC-4 Skymasters operating in the world today and are great favourites in the tourism industry, venturing as far as North America and Europe. The aircraft seat 50 passengers each, in a Business Class configuration. The DC-4's range of over 3000 km puts it in easy reach of exotic destinations such as Central and East Africa as well as many of the spectacular tropical islands in the Indian Ocean.

During December 2007 the entire South African Historic flight fleet was donated to the South African Airways Museum Society. The SAAMS now lease the aircraft to Skyclass Aviation who boast the operation of a truly globally unique passenger aircraft. The Skymasters of Skyclass represent the only airworthy passenger rated aircraft of their type in the world and as such are recognised as a unique aviation experience that has seen Skyclass host international celebrities who travel across the globe to experience the authentic aviation experience of first class travel of decades gone by.

The Skyclass Skymaster’s are maintained in pristine condition by a dedicated team of technical staff who are supervised by fully licensed and qualified Engineers. The South African Civil Aviation Authority constantly monitor the operations of Skyclass, ensuring that Skyclass maintain the highest safety standards on all their local and international flights.

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