Corporate flight departments, UK
In the '70s there was a BAC 1-11 registered I-FUKC operating in/out of Gatwick.
Gnome de PPRuNe
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Reminder this morning that VW also had a Titan G-VWGB from 1978. Registered keeper VW at their then UK HQ just a few yards from where I type this! (My employers looked at moving into the building 25 years ago, would have made for a very short cycle commute for me. Freddy Laker also had a company based there for a bit when he tried to get going again...) Their various HS-125s D-C*VW were regular visitors to UK shores I think.
The one between G-ARSD and G-ARSF likewise. Probably around the same time.
Gnome de PPRuNe
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Never been an Italian 1-11 so far as I know. If I recall, I-F**K was a glider. Preferred I-BANG which was a Tiger Moth, delightfully it returned to Blighty for a Tiger Club show at Redhill in '87.
There used to be a daily run from Aberdeen, via Edinburgh to Glasgow Renfrew. We lived in Glasgow but my Dad took me through to Edinburgh and we flew back from there, just to give me the experience. Later BEA flew the same route with Viscounts and I did that too.
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Interesting thread and one I have been involved in throughout my career. Started flying G-BWWW J31 also flew the Ford RJ until the demise of the service and the aircraft ended up parked for two years still being paid for. The HS125 is still one of my favourite aircraft and at one time British Aerospace had 4.
Interesting one about GAWWW not GBWWW.
Several Farnborough inbounds from the north all requiring PARs (it was prior to 2001 and before the full ILS was installed; we only had a LLZ/DME) so vectored for the talkdown one at a time.
One of them was GAWWW and after landing, the pilot phoned us from ops saying that he'd actually been aiming to go to Dunsfold, about 10 miles south rather than landing at Farnborough but as the weather wasn't too good at Dunsfold and as he had come to Farnborough later anyway, it was no problem! His passengers accepted the onward car journey to Dunsfold without realising there had been a cock up!
Several Farnborough inbounds from the north all requiring PARs (it was prior to 2001 and before the full ILS was installed; we only had a LLZ/DME) so vectored for the talkdown one at a time.
One of them was GAWWW and after landing, the pilot phoned us from ops saying that he'd actually been aiming to go to Dunsfold, about 10 miles south rather than landing at Farnborough but as the weather wasn't too good at Dunsfold and as he had come to Farnborough later anyway, it was no problem! His passengers accepted the onward car journey to Dunsfold without realising there had been a cock up!
GKN, in the mid 80's, also operated an ex BA 707-336C. It was in cargo config though and used to support the mining activities in Africa I think, rather than chauffeur execs wherever..
Dana-Spicer was, I think, an American firm with a significant or maybe controlling interest in GKN. We used to see their N-registered GIV at Leeds Bradford in the mid-1990s. These visits might have had something to do with the one-time GKN facility at Kirkstall Forge, just a few miles away from LBA. I think it was an axle factory.
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