Mission Aviation Fellowship

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The plane of Mission Aviation Fellowship missionary Nate Saint is on display at MAF headquarters.

Mission Aviation Fellowship is a Christian missionary organization whose primary purpose is to provide air transportation in support of missionary efforts in hard-to-reach areas of the world.

Mission Aviation Fellowship was founded by a combination of British, American, Canadian, New Zealand and Australian pilots after World War II by Christian pilots who saw the increasing usefulness of air transportation in the mission field. It was initially called Christian Airmen's Missionary Fellowship (CAMF). MAF's first flight was made in 1946 when Betty Greene flew missionaries in a Waco biplane to a remote part of Mexico. Branches of MAF were founded in many countries, including the UK and Australia, within a few years. One of its planes was used in Operation Auca, in which five missionaries, including pilot Nate Saint, were killed in Ecuador by Huaorani warriors.

Currently around 20 national branches of MAF operate in many parts of the world where travel is difficult, including Africa, Indonesia, Mongolia, Madagascar and Papua New Guinea. As well as providing transport for missionaries they also provide medical emergency flights, relief flights in case of natural disaster and transport for government agencies and NGOs.