Originally Posted by
megan
Just looking at a photo of the aircraft and it carries the code VD238 (G-AGLS) and the letters KZ just visible on the fuselage.
Yet "Flight" had a photo of AGLS supporting it's article about the first flight departing London on the 28 May. Can't have been AGLS, use of stock photo?
Are you thinking of this well-known photo:
It shows G-AGLS departing from Heathrow on 28 May
1946 (three days before a still under-construction Heathrow officially opened for business), bound for Australia.
But the Mascot and Archerfield photos in Gunn's book were just before the May/June
1945 inaugurals (which would have used Hurn/Bournemouth before Heathrow opened).
So G-AGLS, although first registered to BOAC in December 1944, flew wearing its previous RAF serial VD238/KZS until at least the middle of 1945, but was wearing its civil registration by the time Heathrow opened in 1946, if not before. I believe that was also true of some or all of its other Lancastrians.
Incidentally, here's a document that identifies four of the mysterious five pre-1947 "QEA Lancastrians", based on the BOAC maintenance "Fleet Position" returns:
http://www.ab-ix.co.uk/boacfleetlist.pdf
It lists all 21 Lancastrians in the fleet at the time, with the note "for QEA" against G-AGLS/T/W and Z.
So we're getting closer.
