BOAC to Johannesburg

[bean]

Originally Posted by WHBM

Johannesburg was a direct BOAC transition from Comet 4s to VC-10s at the end of July 1964. As well as Jo'burg, the flights stopped at both Salisbury in Southern Rhodesia and Nairobi, which both I think are even higher. Although elevation was not everything, as they changed over the sea-level flights to Ghana and Nigeria from Comets to VC-10s in the same manner and time.

The BOAC Comet 4s were only some six years old in 1964, and it was doubtless not a long term plan for them to be outmoded so quickly. Some of them never ran commercially for BOAC again after this date, until they were sold to be the start of the Dan-Air fleet a few years later. There wasn't a full BOAC fleet of 707s, as it was known the VC-10 was coming, designed more specifically for these routes, and the initial 707 fleet was fully occupied on Transatlantic and Far East routes. There were still some Britannias around in 1964, similarly not at all fully depreciated, when the Comets started to be withdrawn, as well - their last BOAC route was New York to Bermuda.

Another longstanding BOAC Comet flight was the Australasia route, as both Melbourne and Auckland, New Zealand did not have a runway able to handle a 707. Auckland stayed Comet until the new airport there opened in 1965, while Tullamarine did not replace Essendon at Melbourne until some time later, so BOAC gave it up - apparently even the TAA and Ansett Electras caused runway strength problems at Essendon, such that emergency works had to be done.

Wrong. BOAC cancelled a large number of VC10s stating the better economics of the 707. Their was a lot of fuss and scandal about it at the time. The Comet was too small for the job so hen the Super VC10s which were delivered in far smaller numbers than the original order-came along they were put on North Atlantic routes replacing 707s which transferred to far eastern routes replacing the Comets. I would call 20 707s a full fleet

[Flightrider]

The BA timetable from 1 January 1974 - so the first one - has a special advert in it "Fastest from Johannesburg to London. BOAC's one-stop 747. Tuesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday." The route was obviously a fairly early upgrade to the 747.

One page missing from the booklet which unfortunately happens to be the southbound LON-JNB services. But the northbounds were:

Monday BA022 JNB 1845 - 2330 NBO 0030 - 0620 ZRH 0710 - 0750 LHR
Tuesday BA024 JNB 1845 - 2330 NBO 0030 - 0610 LHR
Wednesday BA026 JNB 1845 - 2330 NBO 0030 - 0645 FRA 0745 - 0815 LHR
Thursday BA028 JNB 1845 - 2330 NBO 0030 - 0620 ZRH 0710 - 0750 LHR
Friday BA030 JNB 1845 - 2330 NBO 0030 - 0610 LHR
Saturday BA032 JNB 1845 - 2330 NBO 0030 - 0610 LHR
Sunday BA034 JNB 1845 - 2330 NBO 0030 - 0610 LHR

VC10s were on
Tue SEZ-DAR-NBO-NIC-LHR
Thu SEZ-NBO-EBB-LHR
Fri BLZ-NBO-NIC-LHR
Sat LUN-NBO-KRT-LHR
Sat MRU-SEZ-NBO-CAI-LHR
Sun SEZ-ADD-NIC-LHR daytime

And the VC10s also did:
Wed BA045 LHR-EBB-NBO-SEZ, then aircraft operated BA910A SEZ-CMB-HKG-NRT to arrive on Friday afternoon
Thu NRT-HKG-CMB-SEZ BA911, then the BA048 SEZ-NBO-EBB-LHR
Sat BA051 LHR-NBO-SEZ
Sat NRT-HKG-CMB-SEZ-JNB
Sun BA910B JNB-SEZ-CMB-HKG-NRT

BA were indeed running VC10s on some of the Australia services at the time - Sunday's BA745 left Brisbane at 1530 via Darwin, SIngapore, Calcutta, Doha, Damascus and arrived in London at 1020 on Monday.

[Bergerie1]

I remember those VC10 itineraries so well. The triangular route from London out to Hong Kong via the ME and India and then back via Seychelles and Afican destinations to London (or the other way round) gave us some of the best flying ever. So many different places with time off in each and so many aeronautical challenges along the way. But those days are long gone. Take a look at this:- https://vc10.net/Memories/OperatingA...African_routes

[ZFT]

Originally Posted by Flightrider

The BA timetable from 1 January 1974 - so the first one - has a special advert in it "Fastest from Johannesburg to London. BOAC's one-stop 747. Tuesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday." The route was obviously a fairly early upgrade to the 747.
.

I'm pretty sure i flew from JNB to/from LHR in early 1972 so 74s were on the route earlier than 1974

[VictorGolf]

I'm with you ZFT. I flew from Heathrow to Nairobi on BA020, a 747 G-AWNI, on 4th April 1972. I remember being absolutely gobsmacked by the interior spce on the thing and this was 51 years ago. Amazing.

[WHBM]

Originally Posted by VictorGolf

I'm with you ZFT. I flew from Heathrow to Nairobi on BA020, a 747 G-AWNI, on 4th April 1972. I remember being absolutely gobsmacked by the interior space on the thing and this was 51 years ago. Amazing.

Yes, BOAC had 11 747s by then, they came in fairly rapidly, although both 707s and VC-10s lasted on in passenger service for the best part of another 10 years. The Jo'burg flights look a bit inefficient for utilisation, night flights both ways, but by efficient scheduling the early arrival at Heathrow can be sent out on a morning Transatlantic, while one of the later arrivals can form the evening departure to Africa.

There must nevertheless have been some performance limitation on the route on the initial 747s, for when the more capable Rolls-Royce powered 747-200Bs came along in 1978 this was one of their first routes, interleaved with the new California routes to LAX and SFO, whose round trip cycle time is just over 24 hours, so it was LAX on Monday morning, SFO on Tuesday afternoon, JNB on Wednesday evening, back the next night and repeat to LAX on the Friday, needing four aircraft.