by a railway embankment. The major thoroughfare of Mechanics Bay is Beach Road, which once ran around the beach front of the now reclaimed Mechanics Bay. The former Auckland Railway Station is located here, an impressive brick 1930s structure designed by Gummer and Ford. Formerly located at the bottom of Queen Street, the station was moved to Beach Road to be the centrepiece for the new downtown business area of Auckland. The plan was not a success. The station was decommissioned and the railway terminal returned to its original location, now named the Britomart Transport Centre. Aviation The first aircraft connecting New Zealand with the rest of the world in the 1930s were flying boats. International flights from Britain by Imperial Airways via India, Singapore and Australia connected with TEAL for the Sydney to Auckland leg. Flights by Pan American from America via Hawaii also landed at Auckland. The Short Solent or Boeing 314 flying boats landed in Mechanics Bay, which was the centre of international aviation for New Zealand until the 1950s. Even after the construction of Auckland International Airport at Mangere in the 1960s, Mechanics Bay was still used by flying boats to the Pacific Islands, e.g. for the Coral Route to Fiji. From 1962 to 1989, Mechanics Bay was home to first Tourist Air Travel, then Mount Cook Airline then Sea Bee Air operating a fleet of Grumman Goose, Grumman Widgeon and Grumman Turbo Goose amphibian aircraft for regular scheduled passenger and freight services to the islands of the Hauraki Gulf (particularly Great Barrier and Waiheke Islands) and operated charter flights to other areas such as the Bay of Islands, Manukau & Kaipara Harbours and elsewhere around the country and to Pacific islands. Operating from what is now the Marine Rescue Centre, they were located near Compass Dolphin (since destroyed in a fierce storm in the early 1990s). Mechanics Bay also has a heliport, which has been the base for a number of sightseeing and commercial flight companies, as well as the Westpac Rescue Helicopter and NZ Police Air Support Unit known as the Eagle Helicopter. It is located next to the Auckland Marine Rescue Centre at the eastern end of the Ports of Auckland container terminal. In May 2013 a helicopter crashed in the water off Mechanics Bay, both the pilot and passenger were quickly rescued from the water unharmed by a nearby navy boat. Eagleflight