Sharjah Old Airport

[Hanslope]

On a recent visit to Sharjah, I re-visited the Old Airport Museum. Centred around the original fort/Rest house used in the 30s as a night stop on the Imperial HP42 services to India I sincerely recommend a visit to it if you are in the area. There is a collection of aircraft representative of the early GF fleet of the 50s, an Anson, Dove, Heron and DC3 together with a new Museum of Flight.

If you ask, the staff have a great video film they will play of a typical HP42 arrival/departure at Sharjah.

Just such a great time capsule. I remember years ago reading a book about the early years in the Gulf that talked about an elderly retired local worker walking the ramparts of the Fort at dusk mumbling " Sharjah calling, Sharjah calling " to nobody in particular.

And to actually be able to still see those walls.

Sorry don't mean to dribble on, but I was somewhat impressed

On a good day, its only a 30 minute drive from Dubai

[newswatcher]

Is the old runway still part of the street outside, complete with embedded lighting?

[Hanslope]

Dunno, the whole area is now built up with shops, blocks of flats but the main runway line is followed by a Street called Al Wahada, which I think is Number One Street.

[Taildragger]

Newswatcher it is.....and the last time I was there (Admittedly a while ago) The Centrelines and guidance lines painted yellow were still there also. You could just imagine the Canberras and Hunters taxiing by.!!

[waco]

For lots more and a really great read.....

try 'Beyond the Blue Horizon' by Alexander Frater

tells all the tails about Croydon to Oz on the HP.

My favourite aviation read of all time. Enjoy !

[Cornish Jack]

We used to operate through Sharjah in the 50s - oiled sand runway kept in pristine condition by the local 'Works and Bricks' man with an oil cart and roller! Air conditioned hovels and weevils in the bread. Some N of England company's Readymeal in a tin to provide an alternate to corned beef fritters, rissoles, hash, etc ad (literally) nauseam. Was stuck there for three weeks when the place was flooded!!
Much rejoicing during the period of the French war in Indo-China when a 'Connie' with engine trouble diverted into Sharjah. The passengers were ladies destined for the official brothels and (apparently) did some practice runs during the days they were there.

[Hanslope]

I have read and re-read " Beyond the Blue Horizon and do agree it's a great book.

There is a lot about the founder of Gulf Air, Freddie Bosworth. In the early days he was supported financially by a local Bahraini merchant Mr Hussain Yateem.

I had the pleasure of meeting him in 2000, and am pleased to say he is still with us.

Cornish Jack, lovely story, you should write to the Museum, they are collecting letters and memories from people who served there.

[virgo]

I was there in the mid 60's for a while with a Shackleton squadron doing anti-gun running patrols to try and discourage the Iranians - or was it Iraqis?- from sending guns and bullets to the Radfan rebels. We used to track them by radar and then vector one of three RN ships to intercept and search the vessels.If there was anything nasty on board, the crew would be invited to take to the lifeboat (????) and the offending vessel would be sunk........
The place was very primitive - salt-water showers, Seco huts for the crews, air-conditioning in the messes only, limited physical recreation of an open-air squash court- 6am to 7.30am and a concrete pond known as the Lido! But booze was very cheap - to keep the cost down, we all learnt to drink our spirits with water, the Cokes, Ginger ales and Tonics were more expensive than the liquor they would normally acompany !
There were also some world class Bridge, Twitch, and Uckers schools
The station was run with very little of the tiresome formality of a bigger unit. The CO was a squadron leader and everyone else was similarly downranked - the Senior Equipment Officer was a warrant officer (in the UK he was usually a wing-commander), and when I asked him how I could get my watch changed, (normally a task requiring many hours of getting a multitude of wingless wonders to authorise and sign various chits), he simply said he'd bring me a new one up to the mess after lunch - end of problem !
There was a story circulating that if the station was out of HF radio contact with Aden for more than a couple of hours, they would send up a handful of 8 squadron Hunters to make sure everything was OK.
Yep, I enjoyed my days in Sharjah.

[brakedwell]

Happy days and miserable days! I was with 152 Sqn in Bahrain in 1959-61 and must have spent half that time detached at SHJ with a Twin Pioneer. IAL ran the airport/atc and the controllers lived in the Fort, which was a boozers paradise! An illegitimate member of the ruling family used to hang around the civil parking area and was known to mis-marshal the odd Gulf Aviation Heron! (He also had a propensity for flashing at the rare female passenger who passed through!). The runway was narrow, 50ft I seem to recall, and caught me out in later years when landing Argosies and civilian Britannia 312F's at Sharjah. My claim to fame was to land the first aircraft at Dubai International in 1960. The SHJ Airport Manager was acting Manager at DBX. Once 400 yards of tarmac were down he invited me to land and take off at "his brand new airport", which I duly did in my Twin Pioneer!

[newswatcher]

Some excellent photos from Harry Marshall (http://www.harrys-stuff.com/arab-gulf-sharjah/sharjah.php)

[FaPoGai]

Good one this
We used to take the Kuwait Airways Comets there, about once a week in the late 1960,s. there was no parking area, so you just back tracked and parked on the dumbell. Then there arose a cloud of dust as the transport streaked out to pick up the pax.
Mostly pick-up trucks but with the odd Roller or Cadillac racing for first place. The process was repeated for departure. Meanwhile the R.A.F. were amusing themselves by stopping fans with their heads or coming to the machine to gaze at our delicious ladies who were happy to serve them with soft drinks and promises of what might be.
Rgds. FPG.