Hunting Air Travel was formed in December 1945. Their first Operating Base was at Luton with a small fleet of Percival (an associated company) Proctors, DH Dragon Rapides and Avro 19s.
Percival Proctor 5.
Now as usual I have a problem sourcing images of aeroplanes in their original liveries - so the following aeroplanes previously saw service with Hunting Air Travel . Should I by any chance in the future find images of them in the Hunting livery I'll add them to the post.
This DH Rapide saw service with Hunting Air Travel/Air Transport etc 1946-1957. Seen at Southampton June 1957. Photo Barry Friend with thanks.
This Avro 19 G-AHXK was with Hunting Air Travel 1946-1948. Here with Sivewright Airways of Ringway, Manchester. On 7th February 1950 undercarriage problems required a diversion to Sivewright's maintenance base at Barton Aerodrome for a wheels up landing. Not executed quite as neatly as the identical case of an RAF Anson at Bovingdon whose pilot managed to stop the engines with the props horizontal prior to touchdown. Photo as captioned.
In February 1947 Hunting Air Travel moved their operating base to Gatwick prior to the introduction of their first DH Dove in April and their first Vickers Viking in May. A company presence was also established at Croydon Airport during the period 1947-1948.
Torquay Herald Express 23rd May 1947 (BNA)
Evening Despatch May 23rd 1947. (BNA)
Yorkshire Observer May 24th 1947. (BNA) Apologies for poor quality !
Turning to Tony Merton Jones wonderful book (British Independent Airlines 1946-1976) : The first Viking G-AHPJ was delivered on May 5th 1947 and crew training commenced at Gatwick. Its first commercial flight was made on May 13th when the aircraft was flown to Italy to undertake crew training, returning with three tons of strawberries for the London Markets. On the 23rd of May G-AHPJ operated a charter flight from Verona to Croydon carrying three and a half tons of fruit. After a three and a quarter hour flight Captain Rogers brought the Viking over the threshold of R/W 12 at Croydon and held the aircraft at ninety knots approx three to four feet above the runway. The aircraft touched, bounced badly and on the second touchdown the undercarriage collapsed. At the subsequent inquiry, it transpired that the aircraft had been 189 lbs above its permitted all up weight and that the centre of gravity was just over one inch aft of its limit. It was later established that the fruit (Strawberries and Cherries) had absorbed condensation en-route and that during the flight the cargo had shifted.
August 7th 1948. Boarding a Dove at Croydon for Jersey.
Very popular they were too - resulting in Hunting Air Travel being prosecuted at Croydon Court on March 11th 1949 for infringing section 23 of the Civil Aviation Act. It was alleged that between June 5th 1948 and August 28th 1948 flights were made every Saturday between Croydon and the Channel Islands, of forty flights made during August alone it was claimed that thirty six were booked by London Travel agents. It was said that the airline sometimes tried to avoid these regulations by persuading one of the passengers to sign an agreement chartering the whole aircraft. The Chairman of the Court had little sympathy for BEA who feared the competition and fined Hunting Air Travel £1 on each of the two charges and £15 costs (Merton Jones).
In early 1948 Hunting Air Travel together with their associated Maintenance Organization Field Aircraft Services moved their Viking operating base to Bovingdon.
Undated but captioned as Overseas Food Corporation staff boarding after a tech stop at Juba, South Sudan. En route from Dar-es-Salaam to Bovingdon. This important contract for a weekly flight from Bovingdon to 'Dar' and return commenced on November 1st 1948. Each round trip notched up a flying time of fifty hours. Much to Hunting's surprise and disappointment the contract was not renewed when it lapsed a year later and was given to BOAC. However the company would over the next few years receive several very lucrative contracts. Indeed the number of trooping flights alone operating out of Bovingdon, about 500 annually 1951-1954, kept Hunting Air Travel/Air Transport very busy. (Merton Jones with thanks).