Originally Posted by
oftenflylo
there was a Vauxhall contract with BKS to deliver cars to Ireland/ vegetables for the London market came on the return.
I suspect the picture seen is a Vauxhall advertising example.
In Arthur Whitlock's excellent book Behind the Cockpit Door, he recounts a number of stories during his time with BKS flying the Bristol Freighter - a couple of these were about the contract flying Vauxhall cars from Luton to Belfast. Apparently the heating system in the Freighter was very temperamental, and during the Winter months pilots often had to endure hours of freezing temperatures when the heater could not be persuaded to work. One of the pilots then hit upon the idea of using the cars they were transporting to keep warm, so they took turns to climb down from the cockpit and sit in one of the cars with the engine running and heater on full blast. Apparently the draught in the Freighters cabin soon dispersed the car exhaust fumes !
Dunno how they kept warm on the return leg to Luton though with a cargo of vegetables......