BA 747 & other a/c named "City of Liverpool" etc

[viscount]

'Ste-t' has sent me a link relating to the 'City of Liverpool' name carried by AW Argosy G-AACI when it was involved in, what at the time was, the world's worst commercial airliner disaster. The original article was compiled in the days of 'paper' sources, so rather ignores the additional detail that web links provide.

'Ste-t' has, presumably while looking for something else, tripped over this link to the 1929 air disaster in Belgium:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1933_Imperial_Airways_Diksmuide_crash

Doubt it will ever make the Sky TV 'Air crash investigation' series, as there was no 'black box' and eye witnesses will be hard to interview, but an interesting tale with lots of 'loose ends'.

[davecalveley]

Brian
Other locally named presentation aircraft.....
Spitfire MK IIa P8142 SOUTHPORT I
Spitfire MK IIa P8143 SOUTHPORT II

Spitfire MK IIa P8379 CROSBY I
Spitfire MK IIa P8440 CROSBY II
Spitfire MK IIa P8651 ST HELENS
Spitfire MK Vb R7278 BIRKENHEAD
Spitfire MK Vc AB169 HOYLAKE & WIRRAL

Spitfire MK Ia R7199 was named WOOLTON after Lord Woolton as monies were collected by Lewis"s and associated companies staff.....so if you count 12 aircraft as a squadron the people of the now Merseyside area by including LIVERPOOL I---V paid for more than a squadron of locally named machines.

If you intend to add them to your article please let me know if you want their service histories and I will edit this post accordingly
source Air Britain Book Gifts of War

Dave

[viscount]

Thanks Dave for adding other local place names on presentation RAF aircraft of WWII.

I am not the only person to compile a list of transports named after a local place eg www.exetermemories.co.uk/em/_transport/namedexeter.php
Did tell them some while ago that there was a Brymon Dash 7 to add to the aircraft on that list.

Inspired by that link, well there is great scope, here on nwan forum, for someone to have a go at a list of aircraft named "City of Manchester", "City of Chester" and/or "Isle of Man"/"Manx"/"Mannin". Obvious airlines to start with are Railway Air Services, BEA/BA, Silver City/BUA and British Eagle. My list when first published was probably only a third of the length and detail that is now included. Have a go at an initial list, post it and others will add from their knowledge and reference books and we will get a good list together quite quickly.

Alternatively, perhaps someone could develop the Exeter style theme, as per the link, and widen "City of Liverpool" aircraft list here to include ships, locomotives etc - but doubt they can come up with a spacecraft though! A matter of finding the right forums to ask the resident experts on to expand on an initial list. That is how I became involved in enlarging and developing the aircraft on the Exeter list two or three years ago.

[philglt]

I've found one of my photographs to illustrate one of Brian's examples:

"At a ceremony at Liverpool Airport on 26th May 1999, the Fleet Air Arm Historic Flight took the unusual move of naming their Fairy Swordfish, LS326/L2 as 'City of Liverpool' in recognition of the City's role in the Battle of the Atlantic. A minor maintenance issue caused the aircraft to remain at Liverpool until 1st June before return to its Yeovilton base. For the rest of year the aircraft was seen regularly at Air Shows around the country, until grounded Spring 2000 for a lengthy wing-spar rebuild. The aircraft was re-flown in 2008 but engine issues kept it grounded until fixed late 2010. There is a close-up photo of the 'City of Liverpool' inscription on LS326 along with a 'Liverbird' logo in the March 2011 issue of 'Aircraft' magazine. (Thanks Ste-t for reminding me of this one by PM). Could be the only current use of the 'City of Liverpool' name on an aircraft, confirmed still wearing 'City of Liverpool' and outline Liver Bird logo 3.11."

This was taken at Flying Legends at Duxford in 2011:
LS326 Fairey Swordfish Mk II - Royal Navy Historic Flight by gaultonp, on Flickr

....and a closer view:
LS326 Fairey Swordfish Mk II - Royal Navy Historic Flight by gaultonp, on Flickr

....an interesting topic

Phil

[philglt]

Possibly stretching the "City of Liverpool" title slightly is ex-resident Tiger Moth,"The Liver Moth":

G-AMCK DH82A TIGER MOTH Operating from Manchester Barton/City Airport. by gaultonp, on Flickr

Phil

[viscount]

LFC 'BILLBOARD' PROMOTIONAL COLOURS

While thread drift from the original thread title "City of Liverpool", there have been two instances when aircraft transporting Liverpool Football Club have acquired decals to prominently display that fact. The first time it was just a single decal by the nose door on return from a European Final (I think), while on the second occasion, the Airbus A.330 aircraft of Garuda Indonesian had not just large decals near the forward door, but behind the wing, 'You'll Never Walk Alone' along under the cabin windows and 'Liverpool Football Club' along the underside of the fuselage too. This was all applied to A.330 PK-GBA that transported LFC while on a Far East Tour, summer 2013.












BUMP-UP

This post will also serve to 'bump-up' this thread as the many watermarked Photobucket images have been replaced and further shots added into some of the older posts to in order to illustrate the topic more fully. I've taken out a few posts where the image no longer displayed and a few of comments, particularly about how long the VLM Fokker 50 kept its "City of Liverpool" name.

This thread that was started end of November 2010, has by early October 2021 received a very decent 9,460 viewings in that time and having been updated and revitalised with new images will quite likely go through the 10,000 fairly soon.

[Deleted]

There is a downside to naming aircraft and it is perhaps appropriate to recall an incident related to that on this thread. Readers will recall that Jet2 used to put their destinations on several of their 737s. Not a problem as such, until one morning at Manchester, when the one named 'Alicante' was parked next to the one named 'Venice'. Now the holes in the Swiss cheese were beginning to line up. The one named 'Venice' was going to Alicante and vice-versa. Boarding was from the gate rather than airbridges, so the passengers could see the aircraft as they exited the door onto the apron. I got a phone call in the office to say that chaos had broken out on both flights. Basically, there were two Alicante-bound hen parties who had spent a considerable amount of time in the bar, and would not easily be convinced that the aircraft they were on was not going to Alicante, because as they pointed out, "It says Alicante on the front." In addition, several of the Venice passengers were now also convinced that they were on the wrong aircraft. In both cases we had to get the captains out to explain the situation with the aid of their flight paperwork and order was restored. Both flights picked up a 30-minute delay, which was particularly crticial in the case of the Venice flight because it was meeting with a cruise departure. I think Jet2 dropped the names from the nose some time after that, but no doubt someone can confirm that.

[ronturner]

That's a great story and 100% believable.