The AW.650 and AW.660 Argosy
at Liverpool Airport
1963-1986
1963
1963:
XN856, XP441 (=2, first visit of type)
On 19th May 1963 two R.A.F. Argosy C.1 aircraft
XN856 and
XP441 arrived from Skrydstrup, Denmark and departed for Benson. The visit was in connection with Exercise Morning Glory.
During the Air Show at Speke on 26th May, XN852 came to drop a parachute team, however due to strong breeze preventing the jump, the Argosy performed extra passes before returning to base.
1964
1964:
XN851, XN857, XP441,
XR142 (=4, which set the record, equalled but never beaten, for the number of different aircraft in a calendar year.)
We had to wait until October 1964 for the next visits by Argosy aircraft. On 17th October
XN851 call-sign ‘MOFGJ’,
XP441 call-sign ‘MOFGK’ and
XR142 with call-sign ‘MOFGN’, all arrived from Benson and departed, to Black Bog – presumably the location where para-troops were dropped. The following day, 18th,
XN851,
XN857 with call-sign MOFGF and
XP441 returned the troops to Liverpool. The three aircraft routed from Ballykelly to Benson.
1965
1965:
XN847, XN856,
XN858, XR142 (=4)
On 1st May
XR142 arrived from St Mawgan and departed to Shawbury, later returning from Shawbury and departing home to Benson. The following day it was back, noted to be using the cal-sign ‘IFBIO’ from Benson and departing to St.Mawgan. On 7th May
XN858, with tri-gram cal-sign ‘DHN71’ operated from and to Thorney Island. On 12th June three Argosy aircraft together,
XN847 twice, from Benson then to, from & to Dishforth;
XN856 and
XR142 again, both three visits each, from Benson, then to & from, to and from and to Dishforth.
1966
1966: XP441,
XR133, XR138, XR143 (=4)
On 12th May
XR138 as ‘JMF07’ from Belfast Aldergrove, to Thorney Island. On 16th July two aircraft called, with
XP441 ‘KEL11A’ from and to Benson and
XR133 ‘KEL11B’ operating from and to Benson twice. The following day, 17th,
XR133 returned, now calling ‘CHQ70’ and
XR143 ‘CHQ80’, both from and to Benson. All three July visitors noted as being with 267 Sqdn.
1967
1967: none
1967 was a good year for both Hastings and Beverley visits to Liverpool Airport, as both types neared the end of their operational days with Air Support Command, as the Hercules was now being delivered into Squadron service. However, none of their Argosy or Hercules aircraft appeared during 1967.
1968
1968:
XN817, XR108, XR133 (=3)
On 8th March
XR133 ‘LLD77’ from and to Benson in connection with a TA Paras exercise at Altcar; with on 16th March
XR108 ‘EEC64’, operating from & to Benson also in connection with a TA exercise. On 23rd April
XN817 called from and to Boscombe Down, with call-sign ‘Evergreen 72’, showing that the aircraft was being operated by the A&AEE.
1969
1969:
G-ASXM (=1)
No RAF Argosy C.1 aircraft visited in 1969, a year that saw several visits to Liverpool by the RAFs new Hercules transported. However, one of BEA’s Argosy 222 civilian freighters put in a welcome appearance. The only time a BEA Argosy was seen at Liverpool.
G-ASKM arrived from Glasgow on weather diversion from Manchester on 4th February, departing for Manchester the following day. Many flights diverted away from Manchester due to poor weather on the 4th. The Argosy operated on registration, not BEA call-sign.
1970
1970:
XP437, XP441,
XP442, XR138 (=4)
On 3rd April a pair of RAF Argosy aircraft arrived,
XR138 as ‘RR4492’ and
XP437 as ‘RR4493’, both leaving the next day, 4th, operating from and to Belfast/Aldergrove. Also on 4th another Argosy,
XP441 as ‘RR4494’, likewise from and to Aldergrove and 3 Hercules aircraft. On 15th August
XP442 as Raffair ‘RR4248’ called from Benson to Lyneham, along with a RAF Hercules. Both returned the following day, the Argosy XP442 now noted as Ascot ‘RR4248’, from Lyneham and to Benson.
1971
1971:
XR135 (=1)
The only Argosy visit during 1971 was
XR135 of 114 Sqdn., which participated in the air display of 1st May 1971 at the Airport. As RR4573 the aircraft arrived from Abingdon and departed for Benson, transporting the ‘Falcons’ free-fall display team. This would be the last RAF Argosy visit to Liverpool, although it would be a few years yet before the last transport unit, 70 Sqdn at Akrotiri would disband February 1975 and in the flight-check role, 115 Sqdn at Cottesmore with their Argosy E.1 aircraft in 1978.
1972
1972:
G-APRN, G-APWW, G-AZHN, EI-AVJ (=4)
With the availability of some early 100 series Argosy aircraft, both formerly BEA and American examples on the civil market, two new Argosy operators appeared at Liverpool during 1972. Oddly named Sagittair was based at East Midlands Airport, and made their first visit to Liverpool on 20th February, with their former US example,
G-AZHN, routing from East Midlands and out to Paris Le Bourget. A few days later, they brought in their other aircraft, former BEA,
G-APRN, arriving from Hamburg on 22nd February and departing to Guernsey. During April operated internal newspaper flights for 5 nights, arriving in the early hours from Luton and departing usually for EMA, presumably due to industrial action on the rail network. 17th April brought in G-APWW, while 20th, 21st, 22nd & 24th brought in G-AZHN. The final visit by a Sagittair aircraft was a diversion, with
G-APWW on 16th June arriving from Belfast on diversion from Manchester, the aircraft later positioning out to EMA. The early morning fog also caused a Dan Air Comet to divert into Liverpool.
Although Aer Turas were familiar operators into Liverpool with their Bristol Freighter, Douglas C-54 and Douglas DC-7s for a short time they operated a former BEA series 222 Argosy, before moving onto Britannia, CL-44D and Douglas DC-8 aircraft. Their Argosy
EI-AVJ was formerly G-ASXM, the only BEA operated Argosy to land at Liverpool. On 23rd March EI-AVJ arrived from Dublin to take a load out to Saarbrucken for Fords. On 4th April EI-AVJ arrived with horses for the Grand National routing from Dublin and to Luton. On 6th April two runs were made with race-horses, the first from & to Dublin, the second from Dublin and out to Luton. The load on 28th July was not recorded at the time, likely race-horses again, as the route was in from Dublin and out to Shannon.
No RAF Argosy aircraft in 1972, the RAF sending a Hercules to participate in the April 1972 Liverpool Air Show.
1973
1973: G-APWW, G-AZHN (=2)
Saggitair failed September 1972, however a new operator, Air Bridge Carriers (ABC), appeared in their place during summer 1973. First visit by ABC was in the very early hours of 20th September, with
G-AZHN positioning in from East Midlands, then outbound to Saarbrucken with a load of Ford motor components. On 7th October, Dublin was shut down by poor weather. Two ABC Argosy aircraft en route from London Gatwick diverted to Liverpool.
G-APWW later completed the journey to Dublin, while
G-AZHN positioned out to EMA.
1974
1974: G-APRN (=1)
On 4th April
G-APRN of ABC arrived from Cologne with a load for Fords, later departing for EMA. On 21st September
G-APRN was back, operating from & to East Midlands. Whether for training, or a cancelled Ford’s load was not recorded at the time.
It is not impossible that I’ve missed the occasional visit by Argosy aircraft in the years 1972, ’73 or ’74. I know I have the first visit by each aircraft of the year, but subsequent visits during the year are much harder to locate in the logs as they have not been highlighted.
1975
1975: G-APRN, G-AZHN (=2)
From this point onwards for the next 10 plus years, the ABC Argosy aircraft became familiar at Liverpool, taking the daily newspapers to Belfast each morning, along with occasional charters for BNFL. However I’ll carry on covering the initial years of the newspaper contracts. First appearances though were on behalf of Alidair, who had won the initial newspaper contract using Viscount aircraft. However for the whole of April they were short of aircraft so used ABC Argosy aircraft on a regular basis from the morning of 3rd April to 30th April, less a couple of nights when Viscount did operate. ABC’s
G-AZHN first appeared late on 2nd April,
G-APRN on 9th April. A shortage of Alidair Viscount aircraft again in September, brought the ABC Argosy aircraft to Liverpool again for a few nights, with
G-APRN in the early hours of 16th,27th September, 8th, 11th, 13th, 14th, 18th, 20th & 22nd October;
G-AZHN on 19th, 22nd, 26th September, 3rd, 10th, 17th & 21st October., with G-AZHN operating out to Dublin on morning of 16th October. Usual routing being in empty from East Midlands in mid-evening, out to Belfast with newspapers shortly after midnight.
1976
1976:
G-APRL, G-APRN, G-AZHN (=3)
With effect from 1st April 1976 Air Bridge won the contracts to operate the Belfast/Northern Ireland newspaper flights 7 nights per week. One flight per night Monday to Saturday, with four rotations on a Saturday night/Sunday morning, with slight variations for short periods. This set the pattern of operations for some years to come. As a result, I'll only highlight changes to the fleet over the next 10 years or so, not list every variation in operation, diversions, charters and training flights.
It would appear likely that ABC last operated Argosy
G-AZHN through Liverpool on Saturday 12th November 1976, leaving them with just two Argosy aircraft during the winter months.
1977
1977: G-APRL, G-APRN,
G-BEOZ (=3)
ABC used recently acquired Argosy
G-BEOZ into Liverpool for the first time on Saturday 7th May 1977, bringing their fleet back up to 3 aircraft.
1978
1978: G-APRL, G-BEOZ (=2)
1979
1979: G-APRL, G-APRN, G-BEOZ (=3)
1980
1980: G-APRL, G-APRN, G-BEOZ (=3)
1981
1981: G-APRL, G-APRN, G-BEOZ (=3)
1982
1982: G-APRL, G-APRN, G-BEOZ (=3)
Last visit of
G-APRN was a departure on the regular AK720 Belfast newspaper run on 17th April 1982. It was damaged beyond economic repair when the undercarriage collapsed at Belfast on the same date. The aircraft subsequently being broken-up later in the year.
1983
1983: G-APRL, G-BEOZ (=2)
1984
1984: G-BEOZ (=1)
Air Bridge last regularly used their Argosy aircraft on the Belfast mail contract AK719/720 during February 1984, replacing them full-time with their Merchantman aircraft. During January
G-BEOZ operated on just 14 nights, with Merchantman 10 nights and a leased-in Britannia Airways Boeing 737QC on 2 nights. At this time the Sunday papers departed from Blackpool.
During February
G-BEOZ operated on 10 nights, went 'tech' at Liverpool on 1, needing replacement by a Merchantman, fog affected operation on a further 2 nights, with Merchantman on 13 nights.
G-BEOZ last appeared on Sunday 19th February, arriving from Barcelona as AK127, to operate AK720 on Monday early hours. This was not the last we had seen of an Argosy on the AK720 Belfast newspaper run, as
G-BEOZ was back, as a substitute for Merchantman aircraft to carry the papers on the morning of Monday12th and Monday 19th March. I can trace no further visits by Argosy aircraft during the rest of the year.
1985
1985: G-APRL, G-BEOZ (=2)
The only mention I find in the ‘EGGP’ logs is right at the end of the year. Both Argosies,
G-APRL and
G-BEOZ appeared on Friday 13th December in lieu of a single Merchantman to operate the AK720 newspaper flight to Belfast. This was the last visit by Argosy
G-BEOZ to Liverpool. Reference books state that the aircraft was placed into storage at East Midlands 3.86 having been withdrawn from service. Into preservation with East Midlands Aero Park 5.87.
1986
1986: G-APRL (=1 aircraft, last visit of type)
Final ever visit to Liverpool Airport by the distinctive “Whistling Wheelbarrow” fell to
G-APRL. I have traced 3 visits in the ‘EGGP’ logs for 1986. On Thursday 29th April and Thursday,19th June
G-APRL and a Dart Herald substituted for a Merchantman on the AK720 Belfast newspapers. The final visit was on Wednesday 22nd October, when again
G-APRL substituted for a Merchantman on AK720, but this time along with a Viscount. The Argosy positioned from East Midlands at 0134, departing for Belfast at 0303 hours. Reference books show that this aircraft was leased to Elan Air 1.85. Eventually declared as permanently withdrawn from use at Coventry 2.87 and donated to the Midland Air Museum and preserved by them on public display still in Elan colours.
