Hastings as well, Danny. I understand that when the floors were lifted (possibly during rebuild from Mk1 to Mk1A's, to make them compatible with later Mk2's), coal and coal dust was found in most of them.
Re the airlift most of the RAF effort was, as you say, a rotation between forward West German a/f's and West Berlin ones, refuelling and reloading in West Germany. Nonetheless fresh a/c o/b from the UK would sensibly be positioned fully loaded to make full use of their capacity. One thread here:-
http://www.pprune.org/aviation-histo...ift-video.html