British Eagle at Liverpool 1964-1968

[viscount]

THE BRISTOL BRITANIA WITH BRITISH EAGLE AT LIVERPOOL 1964-1968

I'll arrange these in alphabetical order by registration. I know I don't have images every one of British Eagle Britannias at Liverpool, there are a few earlier on this thread and some more further down taken at locations other than Liverpool. Anyhow, I've collected together most from a number of sources. The whole fleet is listed on page 1 of this thread. Scroll through and enjoy, then come back another day and look again.



This glorious Ian Keast image captures G-ANCF 'New Frontier' at the Hale end of 10/28 (now 09/27). This is the Britannia currently sat on the behind the Crowne Plaza Hotel on the former Liverpool Airport apron. For more on the history of this aircraft there is a link further down page 3.







G-AOVB 'Endeavour'



G-AOVF 'Friendship'



G-AOVK 'Concord'



G-AOVL 'Renown' Not dated or located. This could easily be rolling to the end of 28 (now 27) at Liverpool from an angle now impossible. G-AOVL had three long-term names, Renown being the final one, their are photos on page 2 of her in each of the 3 names.



G-AOVM 'Team Spirit'



G-AOVN 'Prospect'



G-AOVT 'Enterprise' on the apron at Liverpool on 28th April 1965.



Now known to be an Ian Keast image, G-AOVT 'Enterprise landing at Liverpool Airport in January 1964.





A charming study of G-AOVT 'Enterprise', from the long shadows, seen on the morning rotation 0830-0955, the inaugural flight of British Eagle's services by Britannia at Liverpool Speke, 1st January 1964.



The angle is an unusual one, across the north airfield from the Hangar 50 MAS Clubroom across to the 'link taxiway' from the south airfield.

G-ARKA 'Good Fortune'

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FURTHER BRISTOL BRITANNIAS AT LIVERPOOL, CONNECTED TO BRITISH EAGLE

A few shots of further Britannias at Liverpool, here for attention by British Eagle Engineering.



EC-BFJ Britannia of Air Spain on Saturday 18th November 1967 parked nose-in to the side door of No.1 hangar. While it appears that most visits by Air Spain during and after British Eagle were with fresh tomatoes. From the position the aircraft is parked having arrived earlier from Alicante it would look likely she is expecting attention from British Eagle maintenance. Our records don't record the date of her departure to Heathrow. Our paper records certainly show that on her next arrival, this time from Gatwick on Thursday 29th February she arrived for an engine change, departing on Saturday 1st March for Las Palmas.



Although the print is dated 14th February 1968 this seems too early as G-ANCH only arrived in blue Transglobe scheme on 14th February for maintenance (completed with a test flight in June) and departure towards the end of September. Those around the time will remember her colourful presence, parked for many months out on the 'fingers'.

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BRITISH EAGLE'S BAC.1-11 AIRCRAFT 1966 - 1968.

British Eagle acquired a pair of series 200 aircraft from Zambian Airways in April and May 1966, joined very shortly by 3 series 300 aircraft in June and July from Kuwait Finance. Two further series 300 aircraft were added in April and May 1967. At the end of 1967 the two initial series 200 aircraft were returned to Zambian. During 1967 one, then from August '67 two of the '1-11 fleet were leased out. To save captions, I'll repeat the list of the BAC.1-11 fleet. Unlike the Britannias, the names were worn throughout British Eagle service without any alterations. The BAC.1-11 fleet was maintenance based at Heathrow, appearing at Liverpool mostly on routine scheduled flights from and to Heathrow.

Regn    T y p e         Named      Del    fv to LPL  departure comments

G-ATTP  BAC-111-207AJ   Swift      4.66   07.05.66   ret to Zambian 12.67
G-ATVH  BAC-111-207AJ   Serene     5.66   01.06.66   ret to Zambian 12.67  (sub-lsd to Swissair 4.67 - 11.67)

G-ATPH  BAC-111-304AX   Salute     4.67   12.05.67   ISOC repossessed by BAC Ltd
G-ATPI  BAC-111-304AX   Supreme    5.67   29.05.67   ISOC repossessed by BAC Ltd

G-ATPJ  BAC-111-301AG   Stalwart   6.66   20.07.66   ISOC ret to Kuwait Finance  (sub-lsd to KLM 4.68 – 8.68)
G-ATPK  BAC-111-301AG   Spur       7.66   19.07.66   ISOC ret to Kuwait Finance  (sub-lsd to Swissair 12.67 - 4.68)
G-ATPL  BAC-111-301AG   Superb     7.66   26.07.66   ISOC ret to Kuwait Finance  (sub-lsd to SAS 8.67 – 3.68)

G-ATTP 'Swift' on 7th May 1966, the first British Eagle BAC.1-11 to land at Liverpool, bringing Harold Bamburg to the opening of the new runway 28/10. An image used elsewhere on NWAN already to illustrate another thread. The official motorcade, including the Duke of Edinburgh can be seen making their way up the 35/17 runway.



Noted as being in May 1966, so almost certainly the same day as the above shot, but once all the VIPs and public had moved away. Note the disturbed soil as the three 'finger' aprons were added to increase parking space (the term 'stands' likely only applied to places such as Heathrow, Gatwick and Manchester at the time.



A further shot of G-ATTP 'Swift' on London schedules. You can make out the sign for boarding passengers that it was to depart as British Eagle (EG) flight 741.



G-ATPH 'Salute' at Liverpool, date unknown.



G-ATPH 'Salute', winter 1967/68. Puzzled over this one with a British United Viscount but a very 'Liverpool' across the airfield view. However the Viscount is British Eagle's G-ANRS while in engineless external store during the winter months at Liverpool. Earlier (in the Viscount image post) there are photos of G-ANRS with the same vertical weathering streaks from the windows.



The jury is out as to whether this is Liverpool or not, but as the print has been cropped with scissors it very likely has featured in MAS 'Flypast' at some point. Clearly an angle that can no longer be accessed. Perhaps at the 09 (then 10) end of the new runway from the river side towards the bund bank and Speke Hall woods?



G-ATPJ 'Stalwart' on 5th August 1966





G-ATPJ 'Stalwart' at Liverpool, neither image is dated



G-ATPK 'Spur' between London/Heathrow scheduled flights on 31st May 1968.



G-ATPK 'Spur' at Liverpool during October 1967.



Not the most conventional shot of G-ATPK (as seen from Gate 2) - but it does show the built-in rear stairway rather well. Never a favourite way of entering/exiting a BAC.1-11 due to the piercing noise of the APU just overhead and swirling winds created by the upward directed exhaust. Dated 20th June 1967.





Two shots of G-ATPL 'Superb' at Liverpool, dates unknown. Somehow G-ATVH and G-ATPI have evaded me finding images of them at Liverpool Airport.


While I've another large post worth of British Eagle Britannias, BAC.1-11s and Boeing 707s not at Liverpool still to post - thought these might be of interest here as the lease out of aircraft by British Eagle of some of the BAC.1-11s in 1967-1968 has been mentioned at the top of this post.



G-ATVH while with Swissair. As it was not Swiss registered it was not permitted to wear the usual Swissair red and white Swiss flag tail. Shortly before G-ATVH was due to be returned to Zambian Airways at the end of the lease to British Eagle, the aircraft on lease to Swissair changed to G-ATPK.





G-ATPJ while with KLM



G-ATPL at Brussels 29th September 1967 as "Arnold Viking" with Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS). On 20th March 1968 just returned from lease, while still in full SAS colours this aircraft did appear at Liverpool on the Heathrow schedule service.

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FURTHER BRITISH EAGLE AIRCRAFT IMAGES, ALTHOUGH NOT AT LIVERPOOL
. . . . BRITANNIAS:

While the theme of this section is Liverpool Airport's past and the companies that served it, I still have (mainly thanks to the generosity of Bob O'Brien) a number of British Eagle images of aircraft not yet illustrated, however it would be a shame not to include them. After all, this certainly must be one of the biggest public gatherings of British Eagle '64-'68 photos other than on dedicated British Eagle web sites and in published books.

So some more Britannias. Many of these aircraft did not feature in earlier post of BEIA Britannias at Liverpool. So in registration sequence:



Britannia G-AOVA "Justice" and a RAF Hastings. The teaser is the location, where is it? While initial instinct from the style of parking stands, is that it is a military transport base, so RAF Brize Norton or RAF Lyneham, but it simply doesn't look right for a British location. On closer examination and 'zoom in' reveals the Hastings to be titled 'Royal Air Force Far East', so somewhere exotic overseas immediately makes sense, try Seletar or Changi perhaps? Bob O'Brien has subsequently passed on the information that it is actually Sydney/Kingsford Smith, Australia.



Britannia G-AOVB "Endeavour" taxiing at Heathrow. The halcyon days of spotting from Queen's Building.



British Eagle Britannia G-AOVG "Bounteous" clearly at Manchester; just let your attention wonder across to the trail of start-up smoke issuing from the BKS Ambassador in the background!



Britannia G-AOVT "Ajax". Location has the look of exotic heat, so Far East, Australia or maybe Africa? British Eagle Britannias roamed far and wide.



Following repaint (around September 1963) as it was formerly with Cunard Eagle, British Eagle Britannia G-ARKA with fleet name 'Good Fortune' at Bahrain in 1964.

. . . . and MANY MORE BAC.1-11s:

No details with this image of the first BAC.1-11 for British Eagle, but I fancy it could be pre-delivery in April 1966. Why? Well this is the only actual photo I've seen of a British Eagle BAC.1-11 with a black -+- shaped logo immediately behind the cockpit windows. Strangely this logo appears on both a single BAC.1-11 and five together on a page 2 post where it is suggested they are 'manipulated' art-work publicity images. See what you think. Later the Royal Mail 'hunting horn' logo and wording appeared in the same location, port side only.



A later image of G-ATTP 'Swift' at Heathrow.



G-ATVH 'Serene' at Heathrow, date not recorded



G-ATVH 'Serene', date and location not noted.



G-ATVH 'Serene', but where?



G-ATPJ 'Stalwart' at Heathrow



G-ATPJ 'Stalwart' at Heathrow during 1966.



G-ATPJ 'Stalwart' at Glasgow on 13th July 1967.



Clearly after 8th November 1966, G-ATPJ still at 'Stalwart' but with the tail logo and airline titles somewhat hurriedly painted out. Location not known.



G-ATPK 'Spur', quite clearly at Manchester. British Eagle were certainly 'ahead of the game' compared to other British scheduled airlines, with British Midland still operating Argonauts and Dan Air Ambassadors. Some though point to their introduction of jets putting a financial strain on the company. A delightful mid '60s Manchester apron shot.



G-ATPK 'Spur' at Heathrow, date unknown.



9J-RCH with Zambia Airways. Under the paint this is G-ATTP after return to Zambia December 1966 and before 7Q-YKE with Air Malawi. Then back to the UK as G-ATTP with Dan Air March 1975 to November 1991 when it was sold to Ladeco of Chile. Withdrawn from use at Santiago, Chile in December 1994.



CC-CYF. Four of the 6 British Eagle BAC.1-11s ended their days with Ladeco in Chile. CC-CYF was formerly G-ATPJ with British Eagle and Dan Air.

F O O T N O T E

With the Don Stephens Collection and many contributions from Bob O'Brien, plus work from a number of others I've taken this old 'zombie' of a thread with 'dead' watermarked images and revitalised with a great number of images, some familiar, some fresh. I'd be delighted if others can add further shots of British Eagle aircraft, especially British Eagle aircraft at Liverpool Airport. It has taken nearly 4 weeks of sorting, cleaning, organising and posting the images and in places updating the tables with information uncovered in the past 10 years.

As a matter of record, this thread has been a very popular one, even for the 4 years or so that the original images were part obscured by watermark. The thread commenced with several posts in December 2011. Eleven and half years later, when I started to rebuild this thread in early June '23, the counter stood at 18,350 hits, even while (or because of) the work in progress it now, at the start of July 2023 standing at 19,060 hits, so should soon be through the phenomenal 'landmark' 20,000 views. Spread the word around by linking this thread to other aviation forum, or simply come back time and time again to scroll through the entries and images, likely finding something new each time.

L I N K S:

For more on the aircraft of British Eagle, then the main source of information on the net is: www.britisheagle.net/Archive.htm
Although not updated since 2019 it very much worthwhile looking around the various sections. The main source of information in print is: "The Eagle Years 1948-1968" David Hedges, published by TAHS in 2004.

If you have found this thread on a subject 'Google', then:

Individual airframe history of Britannia 312F G-ANCF, illustrated. This Britannia preserved on the Crowne Plaza apron below the 1939-1986 Control Tower and former Airport terminal at Liverpool.

derbosoft.proboards.com/thread/249/bristol-britannia-ancf-new-frontier


A photo-post of Britannias and CL-44s with various operators at Liverpool Airport:

derbosoft.proboards.com/thread/9416/bristol-britannia-liverpool-airport


All Liverpool aviation based company histories since 1950 (of which this British Eagle at Liverpool story is part):

derbosoft.proboards.com/thread/8231


While many aircraft types and all their visits to Liverpool during the past 70 years or so are indexed and linked from:

derbosoft.proboards.com/thread/2839/index-aircraft-type-reviews-liverpool