The Blackburn Beverley
 

In the introduction to a book on the Beverley I have been reading there was one mans theory on how the Beverley came into being.

It was written by Gerry Hatt, a Beverley Flt Eng.

I repeat it below.

First, for those of you unfamiliar with the Bev here are a couple of photos.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/paul.robinson16/Bev.jpg

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/paul.robinson16/Bev1.jpg



"A famous aircraft designer saw a dutch barn blow past in a gale. The basic concept of the Beverley was born at that moment.

The original design of the machine was intended to fulfill single-seater specifications, but as full power was required to taxi the aircraft forward at a slow walking pace, another engine was added. The resulting increase in all up weight necessitated the addition of two further engines to enable it to move at all.

By this time, the general dimensions had increased somewhat, and the work was often delayed for several days at a time while the a/c was utilised by the airport manager as a spare hanger for visiting aircraft. This state of affairs continued for such a long time, that by the time the prototype was ready for flight, other types of aircraft were jet powered.

The rather embarrassed designer, fearing to appear behind the times, had the propellers placed much higher than he had originally intended, in the hopes that they would not be noticed. This entailed the raising of the mainplane and the fuselage sides (the production manager raised the roof) and accounts for the immense height of the machine.

As no adequate runway was available, the undercarriage was adapted to take locomotive wheels, and the first take-off was from the Brough – Hull railway. It was in fact airborne by the time it had reached the passenger station at Beverley: hence its name.

A conversion kit for this purpose is still in existence. While the aircraft is in use in this role, the Flight Deck should be at all times be referred to as the drivers cab, and the VHF should be re-crystallized to include the frequencies of Crewe signal box, and the head office of the National Union of Railwaymen.

Spinning the aircraft is not recommended, as the torque reaction involved causes the Earth to rotate in the opposite direction to the spin, to the accompaniment of terse notes from Greenwich Observatory.

The aircraft is extremely versatile, and may be employed in many roles, particularly those, which do not include flying or movement of any kind. It is also highly amenable to modification. For example, wind tunnel tests have shown that the wings could be placed at the bottom, and the wheels at the top, without any appreciable drop in performance.

Taken all in all, the Beverley is an ideal aircraft for a civilian enthusiast with a million pounds, a private oil well, and a total abhorrence of flying."



The Beverly's first flight was in June 1950 and Blackburns Chief Test Pilot is reported to have said to his co-pilot at the moment of lift off " Well my sides airborne, how about yours"

etsd0001, that is one of the funniest things about aviation I have ever read. Do you have an address on the net where one can buy the book? My interest has been piqued.:D

I regret to say I believe the book is out of print. It's called "Blackburn Beverley" by Bill Overton (ISBN 0 904597 62 8) and was published in 1990 by Midland Counties Publications. Their website being

http://www.bookweb.co.uk/customers/midland/

I think it was 'Timber' Woods who made the "my side is airborn" comment.

The other thing the Bev was noted for was that it was quite impossible to get lost in one. You just followed the oil slick back home again ;~)

SSD

Very good! :D

Court Line bought one with the intention of flying spare RB-211s about. It just sat at Luton for ages until one brave soul finally flew it out. I think it went to Brough. Anyone know what happened to it?


--------------------
vintage ATCO
www.stevelevien.com

Brilliant!

The Bumbling Bev........ www.beverley-association.org.uk/

There is a new book about to hit the streets written by Geoff Gladstone. Not available yet but is to be part of the series of books all pertinent to individual types of which the Brittannia one was recently published. Better still, they quite often end up in the bargain book shops and stands at air shows making them especially good value if you wait a while.

T_M
Working in the defence of the nation whilst all around get p155ed.
Happy New Year everyone.http://www.stopstart.fsnet.co.uk/smilie/wokka.gif

Vintage ATCO,

That was XB259 the first and last production Beverly to fly. It first went RAE Farnborough and remained there until the early 1970's when,as you say Court Line aquired it in 1973. When they had gone bust North Country Breweries bought it and had it flown to Paull Airfield near Thorngumbald, Hull on 30th March 1974.

After the airfield closed seven years later it was moved to the Museum of Army Transport at Beverley in bits and re-assembled there.

Tiger_mate,

The book series the one published by Crowood?

Thanks etsd0001. I'll be looking for the book on e-bay.

Just as a point of interest there is a pub in Morden, Surrey which is called The Beverly. The sign, the swinging type, shows a nice painting of the Beverley. The pub is situate in the Lower Morden Road by the five ways roundabout.

Beverley Book:
 

ETSD: Yes I am under the impression that it will be part of that series, and will advise the forum if I hear any more. Here is a painting that I found via Google:

http://www.artistic.flyer.co.uk/beverley.jpg

T_M
http://www.stopstart.fsnet.co.uk/smilie/wokka.gif

The best one I heard amongst the many unkind things they said about the Bev was that following tests, they took out all the Air Speed Indicators and fitted calendars!

All very well taking the proverbial, chaps, but the Bev was a superb aircraft for the task for which it was designed - short range forward battle area re-supply into unprepared strips carrying bulky cargo. We did six weeks on just that sort of operation in Libya and had hardly a problem. However, 'the powers that be' insisted on using it for anything but its intended role and thus were the legends born. It was a splendid machine for those of us privileged to crew it and, visually, in the hands of those with the 'touch', quite remarkable. I was at Brough on 'Timber' Woods's retirement day and he was allowed a farewell flight....... breath-taking!! Many memories - happy and sad - of the old girl and, unlike the Marathon in another thread, I would be very happy to do it all again.
Just finally worth pointing out that Flight Engineers were very much 'Johnny-come-lately' s in the Bev world having been added to the crew complement after one of 47's Bevs became terminal after losing one engine and shutting down a further 'live' one.
I have recently re-discovered all my original Dishforth notes on the Bev and fascinating reading they make too. The APU starting procedure was extraordinary. In-flight oil pumping for the overload oil tank was an amusing little diversion for those of us who smoked!! Good old days indeed :)

In 1970/71 when Court line had ordered L1011 aircraft the problem came up how we would move these humungous engines if we had a problem.
The answer ??
A Beverley :D :D

The machine duly arrived at Luton and as a Lae (Centaurus) I carried out some of the ground runs that we did periodically.
What a machine !! Those electrical switches that needed two hands to operate !! And the access to the engines in flight through the wing catwalk:D :D
They were classed as fuel cooled oil burning engines!!

We spent some considerable time and effort trying to get a civilian register on it ( even Private Cat) but eventually gave up.
It always amused me that the aircraft were thundering over peoples heads with a military registration but were totally unsafe for a civilian one. Were would have had to do fatiuge tests on all the structure and even propellor, with some distructive testing.
All to fly 50 hours a year !
In the end we gave up and the aircraft was flown north to that glorious fate that waits old aircraft -- a restaurant !!
I think it went to Beverley ( very fitting !)and there was some problem with field length so it had to be a Good day
:D Or was it that there could be no headwind because of range :D ):confused:

Got the Tshirt
Just to set the record straight, the engine access walkways COULD have been used in-flight, but only by the terminally deranged! :) They were provided for ground access to the rear of the power plants for adjustments to be made without having to get out the 'cherry-pickers' etc. The thought of positioning oneself in a confined space close to the rear of two Centaurii at '2300, ECB' would call for total loss of hearing - or cause it!!:D
Ah, the electrical switches; the prop interruptors were an add-on which, on their first installation at Dishforth caused an embarrassment. They had to be selected to GROUND in order to allow transition from reverse to forward thrust but NOT for initial selection of reverse. Sooo,... newly arrived, modded aircraft was being parked on one of the pans on the N.E. edge of the airfield. It had a slight downhill slope and having started the reversing-in process, the attempt to cancel reverse failed and the accelerating machine had to be stopped by application of brakes..... result? one Bev with rearranged fin undersides!
The other electrical joy was the 'Hammond organ' - electrical distribution panel. The main contactors were BTH units which were prone to 'stickiness'. The fix was a strategically applied flying boot and very effective too but the result was that all the Bevs I ever flew on had permanent deformation of the metal grille on the bottom of said 'Hammond organ'. Aaaahhh happy days :D

A lovely beast.....one my enduring memories of childhood is of the day I was walking round to my mate's house in Singapore, on the day that 34 Squadron disbanded, and performed a twelve-ship flypast around the island; they flew right over me - it's no exaggeration to say that I was rooted to the spot in awe....I'd never seen a Bev fly before or since...

Beverleys were essential for re-supply missions to up-country air strips in South Arabia (now the southern part of Yemen) during the terrorist war 65-67 when the Army could no longer supply overland. As the local Shell District Manager I used to travel around the area and often saw them at dirt strips like Beihan. I have a colour slide I took there showing one off-loading 44gal drums of mogas for the Army. In the foreground there is a Saudi pick up loading Shell (civilian) 44 gal drums for the Yemeni Royalists (which we supplied overland). So many wars in such a small space....

I remember seeing a model Beverley at a Farnborough Air Show designed as a double decker car carrier to replace Silver City's Bristol Freighters and Channel Airways (?) Carvairs on the cross Channel routes, so somebody thought they could get civil registration.

I remember seeing one being towed at Thorney Island with a bloke sitting cross-legged on the flight deck roof looking for all the world like a mahout(?) riding a huge elephant.

A colleague who flew them during the Aden emergency told me that they carried a soldier with a rifle whose job it was to guard the aircraft while on the ground in the Radfan etc. On one occasion this soldier asked my colleague, the captain, where he should position himself to do this guard duty and was told to guard the tail. When the time came to depart they coudn't see this soldier anywhere. When they called out he said: "I'm up here, Sir." He had got out onto the top of the aircraft and was doing sentry duty in dirty great boots, marching up and down the tailplane; "You said to guard the tail, Sir!"

A friend remembers the passenger seats in the tail boom.

............................and if you have never flown in the tail boom of a Bev in a thunderstorm you haven't lived, the elevator and rudder control wires were bare for all to see.

The passenger toilet door was situated in the far end boom, come out of the toilet door, pause look down to see if the hatch was open, some poor unsuspecting erk didn't and down he went! Afterwards a modification was carried out on the hatch to prevent the toilet door being opened when the hatch was open.

Someone talking about the catwalk earlier, as an engine basher we had to hand pump the oil up to a pressure tank in the starboard wing behind # 3 engine bulkhead called 'the dog kennel' from there we had cocks to transfer the oil to the engines, in temperatures at over 100 degrees F in the El Adem sun equated to about 150 degrees F in the kennel in the crouching position, no joke for us!

Beverley
 

Two stories about flying in a Bev.

I ,too remember flying as an ATC cadet from Dishforth in the tail -boom, for about 5 hrs, supposedly around the UK,but probably just Yorkshire. All went fine for a while, until we got some turbulence, and the guys right at the far end , nearest the Elsan, started to throw-up.
The invisible wall of smell now worked , row by row up the tail-boom, until everyone was affected!! You must know the smell- Elsan, fried bread, sausages, eggs and carrots!! Can still taste it today! Hope your`e not having an early breakfast!:p

Several years later I volunteered to act as co-pilot on a Bev . airdrop at Boscombe Down;it was Aug 13 1970,in XB 261, possibly even a Friday, and the Heavy Sqdn was short of co-pilots for an ULLA DROP on Salisbury Plain. I was told that it was one of the heaviest loads to be dropped at over 40k.lbs. Anyway , I had to work the " engine -room", and the Captain, Jake Wormworth, Canadian exchange TP did all the pushing and shoving whilst maintaing about 10 ft wheel-height as the load was dropped-- Great fun in a great aircraft:) :)