Originally Posted by
oldpax
I flew from Khormaksar to Mombasa for a holiday in june 1963 just 60 years ago!The Argonaut was in BOAC colours but think had Aden Airways not BOAC on the fuselage?
Came back ,same aircraft and encountered a lively thunderstorm,many passengers refused their meals so I got three!Having run out of money in Mombasa and lived on breakfasts!!
Yes, BOAC retired the Canadairs when their whole lot of types on order, the Comet 4, the first 707s, and the multiple marks of Britannia, all ended up getting delivered together. BOAC stuck the Argonauts on various of their partially-owned subsidiaries (possibly whether they wanted them or not), Aden Airways being one, the onetime East African Airways being another. They lasted just a few years with each, they were only really worth scrap value. Shortly after your trip they got replaced at Aden by Viscounts; contrary to some understanding BOAC actually had a large fleet of Viscount 700s bought new, they never operated on mainstream services from London, but were placed with their various "Associated Companies" around the world, and often shunted around between them. Standard BOAC livery but just the titles changed.
The licensing agreement from Douglas, who did the original design of the DC-4, to Canadair, who based the Argonaut on this, but with significant changes, stipulated the aircraft could only be sold new in Britain and Canada, so there was never any market for it beyond the 40-odd aircraft built for the main airlines of the two countries.