35mm Slides.

[ronturner]

Not Speke, so I started a new thread.
Heathrow May 1963. These were taken from the viewing area of Terminal 3. the paraphilia around the tarmac is also well dated.
A Quad of Comets.

SU_ALC Comet 4C of United Arab Airlines.

SU-ALC Comet 4C UAA Heathrow May 1963 by Ron Turner, on Flickr

G-APDJ of BOAC. One day I would like to learn how to remove a lighting standard from a photo.

G-APDJ Comet 4 BOAC Heathrow may 1963 by Ron Turner, on Flickr

OD-ADQ of MEA.

OD-ADQ Comet 4C MEA Heathrow June 1963 by Ron Turner, on Flickr

G-APDD of BOAC with Air Celon titles.

G-APDD Comet 4 BOACAir Celon Heathrow May 1963 by Ron Turner, on Flickr

[Samba]

Here is a rare one, G-AOFI BOAC Dove taken outside one of the BOAC hangars. I'm currently working on a collection of BOAC images and there are one or two surprises included.

Bob.
G-AOFI, DE HAVILLAND DOVE, BOAC. by Bob O, on Flickr

[radiostationx]

Nice images, Ron I wouldn't be too keen on removing the airfield lighting lattice towers as these add to the period theme of the photos. Sometimes I find myself looking at the vintage ground equipment and airport surroundings more than the aircraft. I wonder if the luminaries on the top of the towers are made by your old company, Philips ? Quite possible as I do recall they had an airfield lighting division ,perhaps they still exist in this specialist branch of lighting manufacture.

[acklington]

I've removed many lighting poles from my scanned photos, but not yet a lattice tower, which would be hard work!

Here is an example, Boeing 720 OO-VGM at Brussels, a slide as scanned, before cleaning, etc;
img219 OO-VGM, Brussels, 28 Aug 75 by Philip Pain, on Flickr

And after full restoration;
OO-VGM, Brussels, 28 Aug 75 psw by Philip Pain, on Flickr

I extended the bottom of the photo a bit, which was a fiddly job to extend the fencing downwards. To remove the lamp pole I used the clone tool to extend (e.g.) the fuselage trim and obliterate the pole. It is quite easy if the fuselage detail is at right angle to the pole, but in this case the curves of the engine were more difficult to extend. Unfortunately it just takes trial and error, and practice to get it right. It must all be done at a high magnification, which makes it easier.

P.S. there are some very nice Belgian Air Force DC-6s in the background, at the Zaventum military enclave on the north side of Brussels Airport.

[ronturner]

Very good. Impressive.

[kuga59]

Hi Ron
Nice photo's. Plenty of memories from a civilized airport in them days.
I was quite surprised to see a BOAC Dove. Is the bubble on the top a first trial of in-flight Wi-Fi?

[Samba]

Re the Dove picture, BOAC had a small unit at the time to teach up and coming navigators the dark arts of navigation.
Bob.

[ronturner]

A small selection from the Biggin Hill Air Fair, May 1963.

I have never had much interest in Helicopters, but this little Brantley 2B of Pontins took my fancy:-

G-ASHD, Brantly B2, Pontins Biggin Hill May 1963 by Ron Turner, on Flickr

Two real passenger aeroplanes with proper engines and props. Both qulify for inclusion in the setion "airlines that are no longer with us" :-

G-ARYE DC-7 Caledonian Airways Biggin Hill May 1963 by Ron Turner, on Flickr

G-ALDA HP Hermes Air Links Biggin Hill May 1963 by Ron Turner, on Flickr

Finally, what today we would really like to own as a classic.
G-AOMF Percival Prentice Biggin Hill May 1963 copy by Ron Turner, on Flickr

[ronturner]

A few from Yeadon, one afternoon, one day in July 1963,

For the yung 'uns:-

Barnaby , Keegan and Stevens airline based in Southend was the main operator in those days at Leeds and Newcastle. (T & F Heathrow included) My neighbour here in France started life as an apprentice with BKS. tells me lots of stories of the fun he had. (EG last night he was telling me as an 18 year old kid he was one told to go over to a DC-3 that had not flown for a while and run the engines up, which he did of course and felt great sitting there in sole charge of this beast.) He said he had worked on all the machines posted here.
Later BKS became Northeast airlines and later still part of British Airways.

G-AMSH DC-3 BKS Yeadon July 1963 by Ron Turner, on Flickr



BKS was one of the first customers for the Avro 748

G-ARRW Avro 748 BKS BKS Yeadon Julym 1963 by Ron Turner, on Flickr





The two Ansons in the fleet were used for aerial surveys and ferrying engineers.

G-APHV Avro Anson BKS Yeadon July 1963 by Ron Turner, on Flickr

[acklington]

Last night I restored this damaged Kodachrome 64 slide. It was the last on the roll of film, and the right hand end had been chopped off;
img963 G-BGMD, Bristol, 22 Nov 86 w by Philip Pain, on Flickr

So I enlarged the crop, and filled in the new white area using the clone tool. And very nice it now looks;
G-BGMD, Bristol, 22 Nov 86 sfw by Philip Pain, on Flickr

The local link for this one, is that G-BGMD still has the basic 'Spacegrand' colour scheme, including the Manx God name 'Mannanan', from its days on the Blackpool - IOM - Belfast route. At Bristol in 1986 it was being operated by 'Hubbardair', probably covering for Brymon to the Scilly Isles.

[radiostationx]

Dec 8, 2017 12:17:46 GMT 1 acklington said:

Last night I restored this damaged Kodachrome 64 slide. It was the last on the roll of film, and the right hand end had been chopped off;
So I enlarged the crop, and filled in the new white area using the clone tool. And very nice it now looks;

There is a certain amount of artistry involved and a great deal of patience and skill correcting an image in this way using the clone stamp tool ,especially getting a result as good as this. Great job acklington !

[robaero]

Did Hubbardair not do mail flights through Cardiff, Bristol and Liverpool at that time ?

[acklington]

Dec 8, 2017 13:49:40 GMT 1 robaero said:

Did Hubbardair not do mail flights through Cardiff, Bristol and Liverpool at that time ?

Don't think so, as the Hubbardair Twotters only appeared on a couple of occasions. The regular nightly mail run was performed by 'Top Flight' using a DH Heron flying to Luton. However, I can't remember the exact years involved.

[ronturner]

In 1964 there was a MSAE charter for the Hannover Air show. Here is a picture of a Pan Am DC-6 arriving there. In those days only the three "allied nations" were allowed to operate into Berlin. Pan Am operated the route from Hannover. Our British eagle Viscount is on the tarmac too. A couple of our members took a day trip to and from Berlin. I wonder if any of them are reading this, and can give us an update on that.

N5024K DC-6 Pan Am Hannover May 1964 by Ron Turner, on Flickr

[viscount]

Looking at the June 1964 copy of MSAE 'Flypast' there is a two page write up of the Hannover (as spelt at the time) day trip. The aircraft chartered was G-AMOE "City of Manchester" operated by British Eagle. Named in the article are Phil Butler, Pete Schofield, KVF (Ken Fielding), Brian Bond, while the members who flew off to Berlin were KWTC (Keith Crowden) and JRG (John Goring). Oh, the cost per member was £13-0-0 and the Society made a loss on the venture of £45-18-0. Hope I have the correct translation of the initials used. Perhaps the full article will be of interest to some:

DAS BESUCHEN NACH DER "DEUTSCHE LUFTFAHRTSCHAU - HANNOVER 1964"

Ken Fielding

The scene was set early on the morning of the 2nd May when a party of 59 people, a few of them quite wet from the early morning Liverpool rain, barded British Eagle Viscount, G-AMOE for the flight to the Hannover Air Show. The one and three-quarter hour flight was uneventful, probably because we were above the cloud nearly all the way, and we landed at Hannover Airport at 1115 hours. As we landed, the first aircraft to be seen was a Convair 440 of Lufthansa, this was followed by a large amount of light aircraft, mostly Cessna and Dornier types doing pleasure flights and taking off from the main runway's parallel taxi track.

After we had cleared Customs, most of the party broke up and went their own separate ways, except for a group of about sixteen who decided to stick to our breathless editor who had written to the Airport Commandant and had received permission from him to visit the north side of the airfield where all the visiting light aircraft were parked. While most of this group stayed in the main hall, Pete Schofield, Phil Butler and myself went in search of the Commandant's Office. The Commandant was very pleased to see us, and before we could say anything about the rest of the people waiting for us we were escorted to a waiting Volkswagen Minibus and driven over to the north side of the airfield to view the lines of light aircraft. After we were allowed to get out of the Minibus, ew sank up to the ankles in the waterlogged grass. Not to be outdone by this, we immediately hired a canoe and set sail to view the hundred or so aircraft in the park. After only 10 minutes viewing we were approached by a very efficient German Policeman, who, when he saw who we had permission from, gave a smart salute and gracefully retired; this happened at least a dozen times during the course of the afternoon and at least four times it was the same Policeman! After half an hour we decided to return to the main terminal to see if we could find the rest of the party and explain to them why we had disappeared, however on our arrival at the Terminal they were nowhere to be seen.

Before returning to the light aircraft park it was decided that we should go and look at the exhibits in the show itself. This involved a lengthy but pleasant walk to the air show area where we presented our credentials and were allowed in. The first aircraft that we tripped over turned out to be the Transall C.160, which looked I thought, just like a scaled down version of the Lockheed Hercules. Its take off was steeply impressive and the one-engine performance was simply fantastic. On walking round to the other side of the C.160 we came across a pair of Malmo Vipans, which on the whole looked quite sleek but very strange with its half circular fibre-glass undercarriage. Next door to this pair, there were a few Dornier Do.27s and Do-28s, including D-IBAX which was later to be seen in the vicinity of Biggin Hill. By this time we were all in a permanent state of shock, so it was no surprise when we rounded a corner and came across the HFB-320 Hansa D-CHFB, which, when it finally flew, looked as if it was flying backwards because of the wing platform. The HFB-320 was in the same enclosure as two Grand Commanders from America and an ordinary Commander 680 which was registered in Liechtenstein and was fitted with peculiar nose radar equipment.

One thing that everybody agreed on was the absolute beauty of the Simmering Graz Pauker SGP-222 Flamingo, this aircraft was immediately named "simmering gas poker" (with acknowledgement to Brian Bond) and will, I think, be known as that for some time to come. The VJ-101-C-XI looked even more peculiar than it looks on paper, if Germany ever goes to war, the noise it makes would frighten even the bravest enemy. The one Dart Herald at the show looked very impressive in the colours of Bavaria Flug-gesellschaft, one of the many German Independent airlines. Another visitor to the show was a Fokker Friendship of Luft Transport Union, this was operating a scheduled service. Still walking round the show ground we came next upon the light aircraft which were fenced off and mounted along the concrete in long lines. The Beech aircraft were at the far end of the park, so naturally enough we started at that end. Two SFERMA Marquis were the first in sight, one was German, the other the bearer of the flag of Liechtenstein. This and the Aero Commander mentioned earlier were the first two Liechtenstein registered aircraft that many of us had seen. The rest of the line consisted of three Queen Airs, one Norwegian (the only Norwegian aircraft at the show) and some assorted Barons, Travel-Airs and Musketeers. On the way back down the lines of aircraft we passed lines of Bolkow, Cessna, Beagle and Piper types.

Next we made for the large Frankfurter stall which was situated near the main terminal building and just outside the show ground. After partaking of much long sausage together with bread and mustard, we now set out in the direction of the light aircraft parking to finish off all the looking that we had been doing earlier in the morning. The first thing we made for was the one and only S.A.I. KZ-IV which had just arrived. The KZ-4 is similar in shape to a Percival Q-6 except that it has twin tail fins. After logging every aircraft in the park, we made for one of the big hangars inside which was a blue and white Messenger G-AJFF, a Norecrin registered D-EKIC and several other aircraft including Piper Cub D-ECIZ.

What remained of the afternoon was spent eating more and more sausages and walking round and round the terminal. At 8 o'clock it was time to board our British Eagle Viscount "City of Manchester" for the return journey to Liverpool. With a 40 knot headwind the return flight two and half hours and we touched down at Liverpool at a quarter to eleven after a most interesting and delightful day out. KVF.

* * * * * *

As a footnote, we should also mention that two members of the party who visited the Hannover Show flew on to Berlin on the Pan Am service from Hannover. The Pan Am and BEA Berlin services to Berlin operate to Templehof Airport in the American Sector of the City. While there is little of outstanding aeronautical interest there, Templehof is the base of the DC-6Bs of Pan American which operate their German internal services. Only American, British and French aircraft may operate on the Berlin air corridors, under the Four-Power agreements about access to the city, which date from 1945 and this is why BEA and Pan Am still base aircraft in Germany. There were in fact a few German registered aircraft light aircraft based in Berlin, but these (which were either built in Berlin itself or airfreighted in) can only fly locally between the airfields in the Western Sectors of the city. The Berlin based '6Bs are Pan Am's last: those seen on 2nd May included the following - N5024K, N5027K, N6110C, N6112C, N6113C, N6519C, N6523C, N6524C, N6526C, N6527C & N8102H. Another reported on the following day was N6529C. A further aircraft of note was the Viking G-AGRW of Autair, which was probably operating freight runs on charter to BEA from Berlin. From reports by KWTC & JRG.

* * * * * *

Statement of Account for Hannover Air Show Charter Flight:

Income:  55 seats sold at £13-00-00 = £715-00-00        Expenditure:  Charter of Aircraft = £750-00-00
          2 seats sold at £ 6-10-00 = £ 13-00-00                      Airport taxes         £ 22-02-06
       Proceeds of draw for 2 seats = £ 26-10-00                      Catering              £ 13-05-06
                                                                      Show admission        £ 15-00-00
                           TOTAL    = £754-10-00                                 TOTAL    = £800-08-00

The Balance, being a LOSS, is £45-18-00, which has been covered by transferring the appropriate sum from the Society's General Account.

Various sums of money are still outstanding from several members, most of whom booked shortly before the show; we look forward to receiving this money as soon as possible.

2017 comment. An article interesting enough for some to enjoy the atmosphere of the times. The original manually typed on sides of Foolscap with fewer errors than my digital retype. I've shortened a few sentences by replacing commas with full stops, and created paragraphs to aid readability - they are the only changes made. There are also two sides of check lists, which I don't intend to type out, unless asked.