View Full Version : Anyone shed any info on this aircraft?
Frank Poncherello
9th Jul 2006, 21:06
EDIT: Been waiting a few days for Frank to resize this but no luck, so pic withdrawn until it can be reposted.
Type and location?!?
FP
Expecting answers in seconds!! ;)
Red Four
9th Jul 2006, 21:13
It's a Bristol 170 Freighter. Don't know the location though, possibly Lydd??
Tempsford
9th Jul 2006, 21:22
Could be G-AMWC c/n 13128 dd 5.53 transferred to BUAF 'City of Durham' trooping as XF652
Rainboe
9th Jul 2006, 22:41
Jack Hawkins made an oldie B&W film about being a test pilot on these and some drama happens. Can't remember what it was about, but it passed a boring rainy afternoon- I didn't realise the humour at the time of test flying something that probably flew flat out at 65 knots
Newforest
10th Jul 2006, 06:31
I didn't realise the humour at the time of test flying something that probably flew flat out at 65 knots
No, it did 75 when the doors were closed:D
HEATHROW DIRECTOR
10th Jul 2006, 09:05
Known by some old (sorry, very old) Heathrow controllers as a Bristol Frightener....
The SSK
10th Jul 2006, 09:43
I just happen to have on my desk (as one does) a May 1969 copy of the ABC schedules guide.
The Lydd-Le Touquet peak Summer schedule was 37 daily roundtrips Friday through Monday, a bit less midweek. Plus a couple daily to Ostend and one to Deauville.
I recall the short nose Bristol Freighters (much more aesthetic than the long nose car carriers) flying Newcastle - Isle of Man passenger services for Silver City. They had fantastic short-field performance.
Groundloop
10th Jul 2006, 10:53
I just happen to have on my desk (as one does) a May 1969 copy of the ABC schedules guide.
The Lydd-Le Touquet peak Summer schedule was 37 daily roundtrips Friday through Monday, a bit less midweek. Plus a couple daily to Ostend and one to Deauville.
I recall the short nose Bristol Freighters (much more aesthetic than the long nose car carriers) flying Newcastle - Isle of Man passenger services for Silver City. They had fantastic short-field performance.
The 1953 ABC shows 53 daily round trips between Lympne and Le Touquet. However on peak summer days they probably operated more than that in the 1950's.
Here's a link to a pic, with some more info attached
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/0873863/L/
frostbite
10th Jul 2006, 14:29
Could it be one of British Air Ferries (Laker) Carvair fleet, out of Southend?
surely not
10th Jul 2006, 14:41
No it couldn't because it is a Bristol 170 as described above :ugh: :ugh:
The Carvair was a nosewheel conversion of the DC4 with retractable undercarriage, and that in the photo is clearly a tail dragger with fixed gear.
click
10th Jul 2006, 19:05
Well, it looked like a pretty fancy port-a-john with the WC in plane sight.....ok, I'll go back to JB.:D
Tempsford
10th Jul 2006, 19:26
If it is a photo of Bistol 170 Mk 32 G-AMWC, it would appear that its last operator was BUAF as 'City of Durham' and was wfu in May 1965.
The SSK
10th Jul 2006, 19:50
I knew a guy who had been a flight attendant on the car ferries. Access to the flight deck was by a skeleton ladder. He used to invite young lady passengers in skirts to pop their head in the flight deck while he stood at the bottom of the ladder...
Regular Cappuccino
10th Jul 2006, 22:16
There was still a Bristol Freighter operating into EMA every night on the Royal Mail contract during the late 1980s (along with a Heron and occasionally a Dak - one wag in a jet commented that it was getting more like 'All our Yesterdays' each time he flew in). :)
RC
Talkdownman
10th Jul 2006, 22:37
Did a few trips in these with the old Standard Vanguard, Nov 57 Rochford-Ostend-Rochford G-APAU/V operated by SABENA, and April 61 Ferryfield-Ostend-Ferryfield G-AMWE/F operated by Silver City. Not much good on one, especially with a Standard Vanguard or two on board.
Talkdownman
10th Jul 2006, 22:42
Known by some old (sorry, very old) Heathrow controllers as a Bristol Frightener....I once heard it referred to as a 'Bristol One Freighty'. ISTR one of 'em led the Heathrow 50th anniversary flypast.
Tempsford
11th Jul 2006, 18:18
Tinpis knows a good Bristol Freightener story, I just hope he sees this thread
stevef
11th Jul 2006, 19:18
There was still a Bristol Freighter operating into EMA every night on the Royal Mail contract during the late 1980s (along with a Heron and occasionally a Dak - one wag in a jet commented that it was getting more like 'All our Yesterdays' each time he flew in). :)
RC
Ah, know 'em well. That will have been B170 G-BISU of Instone/Air Atlantique, the Heron would be either G-ANUO or G-AOTI of Topflight (and maybe one of their Dakotas as well) and perhaps Air Atlantique's Daks. The short-lived Air Luton operated them in the same role too. Some hefty Royal Mail penalties if flights were missed; I remember changing both elevators and the rudder of a Dak at Glasgow after a ground incident and it was finished just in time for a very quick handling check followed by the mail flight.
Those days remind me of Jack Ruskin's 'Airline'. :)
General Aviation
12th Jul 2006, 06:10
It looks like Lydd. Taken from outside of the now demolished end of the terminal building looking towards the new control tower.
Here's how G-BISU ended up, at Enstone
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/0209840/L/
angels
12th Jul 2006, 12:13
What a sad picture....:sad:
ISTR one of 'em led the Heathrow 50th anniversary flypast.
Yes it did. There was a (for once) very competently done BBC programme about the flypast which featured it extensively, including an interview with the skipper. I still have it on video (broadcast 1996 I presume). Must have been the only time, ever, that a Bristol Freighter flew formation with a Boeing 777 :)
Did you talk them through, HD ?
The one which led the flypast is the one which pranged at Enstone, see my post above
Talkdownman
16th Jul 2006, 14:27
Did you talk them through, HD ?He might well have done! (I was Tower Sup at the time)
The last (presumably) commercial operation of a Bristol I ever saw was, I am guessing, in about 1988. I was walking south down Regent Street in the centre of London one weekday afternoon and one passed in front in the distance on the normal track like the jets over the South Bank inbound for 27 at Heathrow. Even from afar it looked extraordinarily slow !
teeteringhead
19th Jul 2006, 11:17
Jack Hawkins made an oldie B&W film about being a test pilot on these .. the film was "The Man in the Sky" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049475/)