More pics from Heathrow in 1947.
G-AGNX, an Avro York of BOAC.
This Bristol Freighter was fitted with a long-range tank inside the cabin, presumably for its ferry flight to Argentina.
OY-DLA Viking of DDL, a Danish airline. Behind is a Lancastrian and beyond that . . .
. . . a Halifax converted for freight by adding a plywood pannier to the bomb-bay.
At the time three runways were being built in the usual wartime triangular pattern. A further three parallel runways were planned. Each one started as a hole 30 ft deep. The lowest layer were stones so big that each came on its own lorry. Subsequent layers got progressively smaller till they surfaced in a runway strong enough to cope with the Brabazon (take-off weight 290,000lbs on single wheel main undercarriage legs). When a runway was finished it was put into immediate use, despite the fact that the areas round about were still a building site, littered with stacks of pipes, builders’ huts and other impedimenta.
Enter a Halifax with pannier packed with peaches from Barcelona, a high-value cargo in rationed Britain. On landing a swing developed and one wheel went off the edge of the runway onto the muddy rubble which was about a foot lower. It might have been OK had it not met a cross runway also a foot above the mud. The step up and drop off the other side were too much for the u/c which gently folded spreading a swathe of peaches along the ground.
Happily, there were no casualties unless you count some spectacular cases of diarrhoea among the GCA crew who couldn’t bear to see the abandoned cargo go to waste.
and the Haliprang
