Beverleys

[virgo]

Sorting out the attic and found some interesting photos
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i271/Virgo_photo/Beverleys%20unloading/Unloading2.jpg
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i271/Virgo_photo/Beverleys%20unloading/Unloading1-1.jpg
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i271/Virgo_photo/Beverleys%20unloading/Unloading3.jpg
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i271/Virgo_photo/Beverleys%20unloading/Unloading4.jpg
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i271/Virgo_photo/Beverleys%20unloading/Unloading5.jpg
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i271/Virgo_photo/Beverleys%20unloading/Unloading6.jpg
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i271/Virgo_photo/Beverleys%20unloading/Unloading7.jpg

[Lancelot37]

[quote=virgo;3046372]Sorting out the attic and found some interesting photos

Great photos, worth keeping and sharing. An impressive a/c in it's day. I only ever got one flight in one from Boscombe Down to R.A.F Cottesmore about 1959.

Only one left in the world at Fort Paull, a preserved coastal artillery fort located at Paull near Hull. Worth a visit on a sunny day.

[D120A]

Someone told me (and I am sure someone else will tell us all if this is wrong...) that the prototypes Blackburn Beverley and Lockheed Hercules made their first flights during the same week, in 1951.

But the Hercules carried three times the load, seven times as far... And faster, and pressurised.

Blame not Messrs Blackburn, manufacturers of well-meaning aircraft, but perhaps just a little blame might be placed on the less-than-visionary soul who wrote the RAF's operational requirement?

:=

[Tiger_mate]

C130 Hercules:
The first flight of the YC-130 took place on August 23, 1954 at Lockheed's Burbank, California plant.
The Beverley was descended from the tank carrying heavy-lift General Aircraft GAL50 Hamilcar glider which saw service in World War Two. In response to an Air Ministry Specification for a heavy-lift short range transport aircraft,General Aircraft, the manufacturers of the Hamilcar, produced the GAL60 Universal Freighter, the Beverley’s immediate predecessor. General Aircraft then merged with Blackburn before the GAL60 was complete. The GAL60 was built at Feltham, Middlesex, then dismantled and taken to Brough, East Yorkshire, reassembled and first flown on 20th June 1950, by which time it had become the Blackburn and General Aircraft Universal Freighter.
Descended from a Glider!,and only the british could assemble then dismantle then assemble again before flight! Such efficiency. Both aircraft enjoy a loyal following from those who have been associated with them.

[JW411]

I'll make a guess that the "Dirty Thirty" Beverley is at Firq.

[BEagle]

Firq knows......



OK, I'll get my coat!

[JW411]

I will have you know that I am the proud possessor of the Firq - Saiq tie (navy blue with the Arabic number 4 in yellow circle emblazoned upon a palm tree)!

[virgo]

D120A, you're being a bit unfair to the poor old Beverley.
Tiger Mate is absolutely right, the Beverley was basically an early forties design for a SHORT RANGE TACTICAL transport, operating radius 200nm, using short field take-off and landing techniques from unprepared surfaces.
In this role it was superb and unequalled by today's transports.
The C-130 had the advantage of much later design technology - including turbo-props - and was designed as a dual role short-range tactical/long-range stategic transport.
Some of the leading particulars make interesting comparisons ;
Maximum AUW (lbs) Beverley 135,000 Hercules 155,000
Max Payload (lbs) Beverley 45,000 Hercules 43,800
Cargo capacity (cu.ft) Bev.5000 +2000 Hercules 4,500
load (passengers) Beverley 94 Hercules 92
(paras) Beverley 70 Hercules 64
TOD to 50ft (ft) Beverley 3150 Hercules 5160
Land from 50ft (ft) Beverley 2400 Hercules 2700
The BIG difference was, of course, speed and payload/range.

[Cornish Jack]

I still have my course notes from the Bev conversion course at Dishforth.
Worth remembering that it was the FIRST perf A aircraft operated by Auntie Betty's Flying Club. There was a Bev Mk II (pressurised, retractable gear and four Tynes) on the stocks but Brough got the Buccaneer contract at that time and they couldn't handle two lots.
As with so many of our aircraft, the Bev was rarely used in its design role - short haul high AUW. When it was - e.g. El Adem - Tmimi in the 50s/60s, it was superb. Six weeks of continuous use and very little down time. Tmimi 'strip' was just a bit of desert which was changed sideways after about six landing/takeoffs to provide a bit of slightly less rough surface.
Its peculiarities were legion - in flight oil replenishment and the fire detection unit for example. Time spent in the 'Dog Kennel' at 8000' was pure magic for smokers!!:E
Lots of memories, some tragic but unmissable. :ok:

[virgo]

Maybe Brough gave the Beverley Mk 2 plans to Shorts who turned it into the Belfast ??

[Noah Zark.]

I recall as a yoof seeing two "Vics" of three Bevs, flying quite closely line-astern, pass over my location, (perhaps en route to a display?).
A wonderful sight and sound, the sky was still rumbling a good five minutes later!

[virgo]

.....a bit like this, Noah ?

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i271/Virgo_photo/Flyby-1.jpg

..............or these.........?????

http://http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i271/Virgo_photo/Formation2.jpg

[IMG]http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i271/Virgo_photo/Formation3.jpg


[IMG]http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i271/Virgo_photo/Formation1.jpg

[SASless]

Prototype XG-20 Glider


http://www.ascho.wpafb.af.mil/korea/photos/44ccap.jpg



Fairchild C-123 Provider


http://www.warbirdalley.com/images/C123-small.jpg


Additional information about the aircraft and its use by the USAF.

The armed versions were really interesting...as was the version tried as a replacement for the "Flare Drop" mission in Vietnam.

http://www.uswarplanes.net/c123.html

[Noah Zark.]

Virgo,
Absolutely bang on! :ok:

[Mr_Grubby]

I have posted this picture on AH&N previously on another thread about the Beverley, but I think it's worth a second airing.

I have done a search for the other thread but can't find it. There were some great pics on it.

Any ideas Pop ??

Clint.

http://www.btinternet.com/~simon.gurry/Dadsphotos/Beverley-s.JPG

[Amos Keeto]

I will have you know that I am the proud possessor of the Firq - Saiq tie (navy blue with the Arabic number 4 in yellow circle emblazoned upon a palm tree)!


...hmmm, sounds like 4 FTS?:rolleyes:

[JW411]

I did 4 FTS too - Vampires and Varsities in 1961. However, the 4 FTS version has a bloody great pyramid behind the palm tree to symbolise its formation in April, 1921 at Abu Sueir in Egypt.

I got to know Oman fairly well and I never did find a bloody great pyramid anywhere about the place - not even at Fahud!

[Bigt]

Can anyone verify the tale of a beverley routing out to Eastleigh, Kenya with a cargo of engines for the beverleys about to join it on exercise in Africa?
When it got there it had `consumed` all the engines itself and left a trail of dead radials across Europe and Africa

[Amos Keeto]

If we are going to have a Beverley thread, let's do the type justice and add some COLOUR to the thread....
http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n184/Amoskeeto/XL149BeverleyC.jpg

Does anyone have any Beverley slides they would care to show us?

[SASless]

Any one care to tell us why the aircraft is painted up in Camo....and has that nice pretty shiny white paint over the cockpit area? I know it makes for a lot less heat transfer and all but it does seem a bit daft to spend the effort putting the bird into sandy camo and leave that huge white patch for contrast.

[Akubra]

Some very nice pictures guys!
A very impressive aircraft indeed. Unfortunately I never had the chance to see one in flight.


I might well be confused with another aircraft, but was it the Beverly that had a trap door just forward of the toilet that was located at the very rear of the tail boom?
I'm sure I remember reading that some poor fellow fell to his death after exiting the head.
Can someone confirm this?

[Tiger_mate]

I painted this one a few years ago:
http://www.artistic.flyer.co.uk/bevsml.jpg
The Beverley did have a trap door on the boom, for parachutists deploying, but I do not know about any accidental fatalities.
The white area was indeed to keep the cockpit area cool(er), and was also present on Argosy and C130 at the time. Flight Safety overides tactical consideration, and in any event, the white is probably almost insignificant in bright tropical locations.
The Beverley was used by the RAF in the early days of US involvement in the Viet Nam war which is not common knowledge. (The war was originally a French one, but that isnt common knowledge either)
The type will become extinct in the near future, as there is no way that the last one left will survive an external coastal location, and I believe that corrosion is already prevelent in it.
Sydney Camm would not have approved of it, for it hardly looks like its meant to fly, but as the advert says, it did what it said on the tin!! and it did it well.
Whilst only 5 years separate the Beverley from the C130, one has the remember that aviation technology in those days was moving at the speed of sound, and a 5 year gap os actually quite significant.

[chevvron]

The Beverley at Paull was ex Farnborough (and ex Paull and ex Leconfield I believe). It was sold by MOD to Autair/Court Line to transport RB211s for their Tristar fleet, but the airline then went bust. I recall Farnborough pilots (Rich Rhodes was one I think) flew it from Luton to Paull in about '73 or '74; from there it eventually went to the army Museum of Transport at Leconfield; presumably it's now gone back to Paull.
My own experiences as an ATC cadet were:
Cadets flying in the tailboom; one of them saw this lever on the floor and decided to find out what it was for; it took several cadets jumping on the hatch in the floor to close it again! (Later mentioned in 'Air Clues')
On a later flight on a sunday (an 'affiliation' visit to Abingdon where a volunteer crew came in to fly cadets without the aid of flight line mechanics) as we taxiied in, the loadmaster called several of us more senior cadets down into the main fuselage, where he explained there was no parking brake and no-one to chock the aircraft so on his signal and before shutdown, we were to leap out, grab a set of chocks, and place them either side of the main bogies.
Sadly, less than a year later, I happened to drive past Bicester and saw at least three on the firedump there - must have been about '69 or '70.

[Amos Keeto]

Any one care to tell us why the aircraft is painted up in Camo....and has that nice pretty shiny white paint over the cockpit area? I know it makes for a lot less heat transfer and all but it does seem a bit daft to spend the effort putting the bird into sandy camo and leave that huge white patch for contrast.

Indeed, it does make a mockery of the whole thing, also with red/white/blue roundels. They even decided to omit the starboard wing roundel as an aid to 'disguise', so any attacking aircraft seeing these aircraft on the ground would not see two roundels and think it was an aircraft! This scheme, complete with white cockpit patch, was also applied to the RAF's Hercules, Andovers, some Argosies and Twin Pioneers. By the mid-70s, they realised that the white patch was pointless on the Hercules, which had this deleted. At the same time they repainted the camouflage matt and took the white out of the RAF roundels.

[Bof]

Akubra

I believe the incident to which you referred occurred at Aden. It was definitely the co-pilot that was killed, but can't remember his name. Understand he had been carrying out part of his preflight check in the loo and someone had removed the rear para hatch. He backed out of the loo, fell and landed on his head.

[Mr_Grubby]

http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=76608&highlight=blackburn+beverley

This is the link I was trying to find.

C.

[Amos Keeto]

http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=76608&highlight=blackburn+beverley

This is the link I was trying to find.

C.

Thanks very much for that link, as I missed this thread the first time around...four years ago!!!:eek:

[twentygrand]

The camouflaged Beverley is 149 - I know because I was flying it for the photo! This was the first one in this colour scheme which I picked up from St. Athan before ferrying it to Aden. You can see that the paint is new by the lack of heavy exhaust marks on the wings. We flew in formation with an Argosy so they could photograph us against a variety of backgrounds.
I've a lot of Bev slides in the attic - I'll see if I can root a few out!
149's cockpit still exists in the Newark Air Museum.

[Amos Keeto]

The camouflaged Beverley is 149 - I know because I was flying it for the photo! This was the first one in this colour scheme which I picked up from St. Athan before ferrying it to Aden. You can see that the paint is new by the lack of heavy exhaust marks on the wings. We flew in formation with an Argosy so they could photograph us against a variety of backgrounds.
I've a lot of Bev slides in the attic - I'll see if I can root a few out!
149's cockpit still exists in the Newark Air Museum.

Wonderful to have the actual pilot from that sortie on this forum. Do you happen to know the exact date of the sortie? I would guess sometime in mid-'66 perhaps? The first camo. Beverley I saw was XM111 coded 'D' of 47 Squadron which made us unexpecting enthusiasts very excited to see a camouflaged Bev turn up at Filton during Bristol's Air Day on 18th June 1966.

[twentygrand]

The formation Photos were taken on 3rd Feb 1965. We departed for Aden on the 6th: Abingdon - Luqa (Malta) 8:30
7th: Luqa - El Adem (Libya) 3:10
8th: El Adem - Khormaksar 11:00

The last one was interesting as the Bev would run out of oil before it ran out of petrol!

[Amos Keeto]

The formation Photos were taken on 3rd Feb 1965. We departed for Aden on the 6th: Abingdon - Luqa (Malta) 8:30
7th: Luqa - El Adem (Libya) 3:10
8th: El Adem - Khormaksar 11:00

The last one was interesting as the Bev would run out of oil before it ran out of petrol!

Many thanks - another one pinned down! Over which sea were they taken and did you by any chance take some photos of the formating Argosy?

[Milt]

Beverley Adventures

From the memoirs of an embryo Beverley TP during his time at Boscombe Down.

Early in May 1956 I was assigned to take a crew to Canada to pick up a Beverley from RCAF Base Namao near Edmonton in Alberta where it had been based for cold weather trials over the previous winter.

The trip to Canada to ferry the Blackburn Beverley was quite an adventure. I now had all of 7 hours 15 mins experience in Beverleys. Ray Bray was my co-pilot and he had about two hours experience. The Navigator Flt Lt Ian Penny and two Flight Engineers, Eldridge and Eyre, had a little more time in the monsters. Flying a Beverley was like flying a block of flats from a second floor bedroom!

Somehow we all arrived at an RCAF base in the UK, the night before launching in an RCAF North Star for Ottowa via Prestwick in Scotland and Keflavik in Iceland. The North Star was an unpressurised Skymaster (DC4) fitted with noisy Merlin engines. I managed 2 1/2 hours flying the North Star between Keflavik and Ottawa. It was my first time over the Atlantic.

After an overnight in Ottawa, we boarded a civil Vickers Viscount to travel via Winnipeg and Calgary and then on to Edmonton. It snowed whilst we were on the ground at Calgary and brooms were used to sweep the snow from the wings before we departed.

We stayed a few days in a motel at Edmonton and I enjoyed, for the first time, an automatic electric blanket. There was still plenty of snow around.

Whilst waiting for the Beverley to become serviceable, I became interested in an F86 Sabre variant at Namao. Like all of the Canadian Sabres they had Orenda engines, but this one had three-foot-extensions on its wings to give it an enhanced high altitude capability. I was offered a flight and flew an intriguing 45 minutes.

That afternoon, the Beverley was declared ready for a test flight, so off we went in the general westerly direction of the Rocky Mountains, which looked fairly close. I decided to have a closer look at the Rockies, not appreciating that they were really about an hour's flying away. They looked much closer in the clear crisp atmosphere in the area. That test flight lasted 2 1/2 hours but we saw the Rockies up close.

A cold front went through Edmonton that night but that didn't stop me from launching for Winnipeg the following day. I had on board 27 passengers, a couple of spare Beverley engines, boxes of spares and a torn down Auster aircraft. We had to fly through the weather front to reach Winnipeg, so did not see much of the ground. After an overnight at Winnipeg, during which the front passed us again, we were off next day for Ottowa. We had to penetrate the same front and ran in to heavy icing, losing our HF radio antenna and turned back with a fairly heavy load of ice. The electric de-icers on the props worked overtime but the airframe de-icing wasn't nearly effective enough. Another overnight was spent at Winnipeg whilst our antenna was replaced.

Next day we caught up with the front again and this time went through it above icing levels coming out the other side about an hour out of Ottowa. I wanted to see some of Canada at low level so obtained clearance for flight at 500 ft above ground. During the descent through 2500 ft No 3 engine must have 'felt tired'. Its propeller just auto-feathered and stopped the engine. I couldn't budge the prop out of feather so I cancelled the low level clearance and climbed on three engines to about 5000 ft for the rest of the flight into Ottowa.

The F/Engineers soon found that the electric brush housing for No 3 prop had broken, allowing a short circuit to activate the auto coarsening system. This feathered the prop, effectively stopping the engine.

Next day, we found the weather front again on the way to Goose Bay in Labrador. ATC at Goose called for confirmation of gear down for landing. The reply was "Gear Down and Welded." There we found we had a leaking rudder hydraulic booster unit and no on-board spare. We resigned ourselves to waiting at Goose Bay whilst a spare unit could be flown in from Namao.

The base at Goose Bay is on the southern shore of a large bay which was still partially frozen over. High snow drifts, formed by snow ploughs and blowers, extended down each side of the runways. These were slowly melting. Goose Bay is in the middle of nowhere and only accessible in the winter by air. A USAF squadron of Scorpion fighters based here formed part of the Dewline northern air defences of North America.

Our next stop was to be a WW2 staging airfield called Bluey West One situated on the southern end of Greenland near the small village of Narsarsuak. This airfield could normally only be reached by flying about 35 miles up a fiord which had, at its entrance, a small island on which there was a radio beacon. There was a fork in the fiord about 10 miles in and it was mandatory that one take the right hand fork. To do otherwise and go to the left was most often disastrous as this arm of the fiord came to an abrupt narrow end where an aircraft was unable to turn back. Terrain in the area went up to about 10,000 feet forming huge forbidding cliffs.

All crews departing Goose Bay for Bluey West One had to be briefed on the hazards of the area and certified as having seen a movie of the correct fiord penetration.

The spare rudder booster unit arrived on a civil airline flight and was soon fitted. We were then ready to go. But the weather had other ideas. For several days the weather was too bad to launch. Eventually, I could see about a 60 per cent chance of making it into Bluey West so decided to give it a go. Topped up with fuel, I had about 15 hours endurance, enough to get to destination and return to Goose Bay with some reserve.

We were in or over cloud most of the way until reaching the radio beacon on the island off the southern tip of Greenland. I did a DF let down on the beacon and broke through a cloud base of about 4,000 ft. A vast variety of ice bergs and broken ice flows testified to the still cold conditions outside. I soon found the fiord entrance which was about 10 miles across, rapidly narrowing down to a gloomy looking tunnel. Vertical cliffs on each side disappeared up into the cloud. Huge ice bergs abounded and were of amazing colours at the violet end of the spectrum.

After flying up the tunnel for about 20 miles, I became wary lest we be trapped by the occasional snow showers which we encountered. Soon we encountered one of these snow showers completely blocking off the tunnel. I had no option but to turn around and hope that another snow shower had not developed behind us. But none had. I had the Navigator advise me on how much time we could spend in the area before going back to Goose Bay. This worked out to be about one hour.

I decided to climb up through the cloud and if I could top the cloud, home in on the beacon at Bluey West. We climbed into the clear at about 11,000 feet and soon had over the top indications. Very close to overhead, we flew over a hole, through which we could see the fiord and part of the airfield. The hole was about 1/2 mile across and opened out lower down like an inverted cone.

After transiting the hole a few times to get a feel for changing conditions, I could see that a snow storm was over most of the airfield but the approach end of the runway projected about 3,000 ft out of the snow. If I was quick, I knew I could put the Beverley on the visible portion of the runway which ran on up close to a cliff face. There was no going around again on this airfield. Nor was there to be any escape from the hole once I had penetrated into it by more than about 2,000 feet without the high risk of hitting some of the peaks buried in the cloud. It was the daddy of all sucker holes.

I knew I could do it but I had 27 passengers and crew to think about. I ventured a little into the hole, above safety height, for a better look before climbing back out again. The air traffic controllers in the tower couldn't assist as there was nil visibility from the tower through heavy snow.

It was just all too inviting and I announced my intention to land off a rapid descent. I reduced power to idle, reduced speed and dropped full flap. I selected full engine RPM, to get maximum braking from the huge props, and soon had a high rate of descent established. Runway length visible to me was now down to about 2,000 ft and slowly diminishing.

All went well until we reached about 4,000 ft. The aircraft had been cold soaked at the higher altitudes and was now penetrating very moist air. White circles of ice started to grow from the centres of the front windows where the glass must have been coldest. Judging the rate of growth of the ice patches, I could see that, by the time of intended touchdown, I may not be able to see at all. I called for windscreen de-icing. The engineer leaned past my right shoulder to reach and turn on the main switch for the alcohol spray de-icer pump. I waited expectantly for the spray to commence as I lined up on what was left of the runway. Now at about 1,500 ft I was looking through about one inch of glass near the lower frame, with my head bending low over the control column.

The engineer advised having checked the de-icer system circuit breaker and that it did not appear to be serviceable. I yelled for him to grab the fire axe and be prepared to knock out my front window on command. Someone produced a pair of goggles and tried to fit them around my forehead. I was intent on judging our one-shot only approach, peering through my slit of glass now less than 1/2 inch deep.

Speed and approach angle was working out well and as I rounded out over what appeared to be a couple of tennis court lengths of visible runway the glass became completely white. I could feel some ground effect as I called, "Brace yourselves." It was an anti-climax. The touch down was a greaser, only indicated by the slight rumbling of the wheels as we rolled up into the snow covered parts of the runway. I kept straight on instruments and used maximum braking and reverse thrust until airspeed was no longer indicating. Soon after I felt the discontinuity of deceleration as we stopped. No one could see out of the aircraft, until a door was opened to reveal we were still on the runway. Heavy snow continued falling.

The controller in the tower had sounded the crash alarm, fully expecting us to have come to grief and was almost as relieved as were we to be in one piece. I left the aircraft heaters running and closed down the engines. It took about 20 minutes for airfield vehicles to find us in the snow. Soon after the snow shower had subsided enough for me to start a couple of engines and taxy clear of the runway and on to a dispersal.

By now, we had determined why the windscreen de-icer had not worked. I asked the engineer what setting he had selected on the rheostat for the pump motor. He said "What rheostat ?" I said "That one" pointing to a rheostat on the side of the console behind me. It was set to Minimum/off. I had incorrectly assumed that he knew about the rheostat. Sometimes little things like that become incredibly important.

The weather clamped again and the 'tunnel' down the fiord closed off. A couple of amphibians were based here and their task was to recce the fiord whenever the weather was marginal. It was the next day before a recce showed conditions had improved. We were comfortable in the well equipped quarters and Officers' Club. I walked around the base a bit but couldn't go far because of the snow. It never became darker that twilight at this lattitude and time of the year. I decided to launch for Keflavik in Iceland at about 1800 hrs. We took off at about 2100 hrs local time. The flight down the fiord tunnel was absolutely fascinating in the half light.

I had to do a GCA approach at Keflavik at about 0400 hrs. There was a small gale blowing with teaming rain mixed with sleet. We all had a good breakfast while the aircraft was being refuelled. I did not see much of Iceland, except for the airfield in the dark.

Next stop was Prestwick for further refuelling, Customs and another meal. We were getting a bit weary by now but by popular choice decided to press on to the end of the trip. This was to be Blackburn's little narrow strip at their factory near the town of Brough.

I had refrained from using propellor braking during landings after Bluey West One so at Brough on a relatively short runway I selected full-power reverse on all four engines. Taxiing, I soon found, by a rapidly rising engine oil temperature, that No 2 prop had stuck in reverse. I had to stop to close down that engine, before oil temperatures went too high. Another propellor brush housing had failed. Never a dull moment in a Beverley! We were a weary lot who disembarked from Beverley No 262. From Edmonton, Canada to Brough in England involved nearly 28 flying hours.

[Cornish Jack]

Re. the co-pilot fatal.
We were scheduled for a pre-dawn departure for Sharjah/ Bahrain. We had come out from the UK - 30 Sqn at Dishforth - to fill in for the u/s Aden based aircraft. We were pre-flighting and the co was up in the tail, checking the hyd boosters for leaks. To get to the tail, he had to cross the boom floor hatch and go through the rear toilets. The floor hatch was directly outside the rear toilet doors. While the co was in the tail, Movements positioned the boom loading ladder under the tail AND opened the boom floor hatch. It was still dark and the co came back from his check and backed out of the toilet door. Falling through the hatch, he struck his head on the hatch edge and landed across the handrails of the loading ladder. Either injury would likely have been fatal. The skipper was doing his externals and was the first to find him. He shouted to me to help and we called the medics and held and comforted the co as best we could until they arrived. He was taken off to hospital and IIRC declared dead on arrival.
Interesting point - the potential danger had been foreseen already and the Bev boom hatch doors had retrofit pins which prevented the toilet doors opening when the hatch was open .......... except for this one aircraft:mad:
Further interesting point. At about 07.30, we were informed by a local senior officer that he was arranging a replacement co from local sources and we could be on our way again very soon !!!!!!!!! :mad: :mad: :mad: Our skipper,( God bless him), a normally mild-mannered gentleman, 'explained' that neither he nor his crew would be going anywhere that day, other than to the nearest bar ... and so it was!!
Not one of the best Bev trips but it will stay in the memory.

[brakedwell]

I'll make a guess that the "Dirty Thirty" Beverley is at Firq.

It looks familiar. Could be Firq U2.

[Farmer 1]

Ah, yes, Dirty Thirty. Fond memories of flying with them out of Bahrain in the mid sixties. Tell me, has Sharjah changed very much since then?

[om15]

Tiger Mate,
A very impressive painting, you mention the involvement of the Beverly in Viet Nam and the earlier French conflict.
In March 1954 the French forces were building up the defences for Dien Bien Phu in the High Region inland from Hanoi, prior the the battle and defeat by the Viet Mingh, the main transport in to Dien Bien Phu was C47 Daks, but a heavy transport was needed, so 2 civilian Bristol 170 freighters were requisitioned, these carried in amonst other loads, ten M24 Chaffee tanks, one remaining example can still be seen there.so another British transport saw active service in that region.The main advantage that the 170 had over the other type that could carry the loads( Fairchild C119 Packet) was the ability to use the 1260 yard runway.

Regards,
om15

[diginagain]

Seats from the Bev at Paull airfield, which was subsequently exhibited at the Museum of Army Transport in Beverley and has now found a new home at Paull Fort, were 'donated' (if thats the right word) to the cadet SNCO's room of 152 City of Hull Sqn ATC.

[x10ge]

MILT
As a current Broughie, and a generation behind, I found your Brough delivery flight a brilliant read, thankyou.
Farmer 1.
Sharjah changed? I should have a look on the Earth mapping sofware (which I cant name) but personally I can find nothing at all recognisable from the 60s

[Akubra]

Thanks for the detailed account Cornish Jack.
Sorry to make you relive that time.
Its a shame that one plane missed the retrofit.
Regards.

[Gordon Fraser]

I had my one and only flight in a Beverly as an air experience flight while with the ATC at summer camp at Dishforth in 1956 or 57. Regarding the bottom hatch in the tailboom, I seem to remember sticking my head out of a hatch on the top of the tailboom, directly between the tail fins which gave one access to the tail surfaces. I remember a wonderful flight, perched in the bottom nose observation panel. Happy days indeed.

[Firestreak]

My only flight in a Beverly was Gutersloh to Cranwell---into a strong headwind. We were reasonably low through Germany and , I kid you not, were overtaken by traffic on the autobahn.

Only a few pax and no freight, we were able to have a kick around with a football on the freight deck.

ATC story.

Early Bev going UK into French airspace. On handover, French ATC---

"We have you contact, you appear to be followed by two objects"

"That's OK, they are our fins"

[Blacksheep]

The Beverley was a "Stately" machine. There was no point in rushing her or getting into a flap. On one 'Mickey Finn' we flew from Waddington to Machrihanish in a Beverley carrying our own Fire Tender for the detachment. There was a westerly gale blowing and it took us nearly four hours to get there. Four days later when we returned it was still blowing a gale and we got back in less than an hour. Those who are familiar with Waddington will know that the runway is aligned something like 03/21 so the landing was rather 'interesting'. We could see straight down the runway centreline through the 'portholes' in the boom and though we weren't actually going backwards, there wasn't an awful lot of forwards either. Does anyone know the crosswind limits for a Bev? We must have been close to the limit.

[wz662]

I never got the throw anything out of a Bev but I've spent many a long hour talking to a chap who did a fair bit of Air Drop trials work with them. I like this one best.
On the Bev the extraction parachute was mounted on the rear face of the cargo bay sill and during the pre start up checks someone had used it as a step when getting down. What wasn't noticed was that the relaese had been damaged. During the take off roll the extractor parachute fell off and deployed, this in turn pulled the the Medium Stressed Platform out of the hold and deposited it on the runway. Releived of its load the Bev promptly took off.

Has anyone ever seen the Bev with what looks like an arrestor hook! (Is it the largest aircraft to ever have one?) for Ground Proximity Extraction drops?

[Tiger_mate]

Has anyone ever seen the Bev with what looks like an arrestor hook! (Is it the largest aircraft to ever have one?) for Ground Proximity Extraction drops?

No, but to set the scene, for many years NATO Forces held an exercise to practice for a second Berlin airlift. This consisted of Transalls and USAF/RAF C130 being escorted around northern germany by F4/Mirage/F104/F15.

As you would expect, the 'package' returned to base together. To take the urine out of the fighter jocks, I once saw a USAF C130 deploy the mother of all 'brake' parachutes upon landing!
I bet she stopped toute-suite as well.

[twentygrand]

Has anyone ever seen the Bev with what looks like an arrestor hook! (Is it the largest aircraft to ever have one?) for Ground Proximity Extraction drops?
The "arrestor hook" was probably the red tripod fitted under the sill of the cargo bay to prevent tipping when unloading.

[wz662]

No the hook was a hook.
It was fixed to the sill and broke away when it caught the cable. However it was still attched to the load which would then be extracted from the aircraft.
When the arrestor system was replaced by a system of extractor parachutes ULLA (as the UK called it, LAPES by everyone else) was born, havng the advantage of not needing the arrestor cables to be set up first.

[Bof]

Airdrop
As has been reported, ULLA/LAPES was used by the Beverley although I don't think it was ever used operationally. Please somone correct me if I am wrong. I have used it in the USA from C-130s in 1964 as well as the PLADS system and it was used in Vietnam. We did quite a few ULLA trials on JATE at Abingdon in the early 70s with the C-130K but I don't think it ever caught on in the RAF. I am not privvy to the latest black arts as practised by the SF world anymore, but it seems that the USAF system of GPS controlled high level parachute drop has some merit. If I am straying into forbidden territory, please shut me up but it seems the RAF have not moved very much in the last 50 years. Apologies for the thread creep.

[ancientaviator62]

Apologies for the slight thread creep but I did some of the ULLA trials with the C130K and we continued the Beverley practice of using extractor parachutes (modified Vulcan brake 'chutes if my fading memory is correct ). Each platform could weigh a max of 14000 lbs and as we used to do triple ULLA, a handy load could be delivered with just on pass.

[ZeBedie]

Years ago, I used to fly with an ex Beverly pilot. During the 60's, he'd been first officer on a Beverly doing the Wolverhampton airshow. He said they had a very serious incident, due to him preparing the props for reverse on landing, as briefed. Apparently, the captain changed his mind at the last moment and decided to do a touch and go instead. This required the F/O to deselect a load of switches in quick time before it was safe to apply power. They came very close to running out of runway.

Years later, I was talking to someone who'd been a member of The Wolverhampton Aeroclub. He told me all about how he'd watched a Beverly nearly crash at the airshow. Both stories tied up beautifully!

[POHL]

I was invited by a chum on a Beverley afternoon sortie out of Nairobi, for a low level cruise around the game parks, back in the 60's. All went well and I was enjoying the views from the throne like jump seat, when it was decided to carry out a low level attack on a herd of eliphants.After the first pass a lone bull remained trumpeting at the 'intruder'. On the third pass with the bull still rooted in position and waving its trunk, the flight engineer surmised aloud that clearly the bull was anticipating mating!

The resulting explosion of mirth may well have been our last, however, fortunately my chum remembered to pull out of the 'attack'!

[Lyneham Lad]

Ah, the Beverley (just discovered this thread).

I was on 390MU, Seletar from1966 to 1968. Seletar was also home to 34 Sqn Beverleys. When the Belvederes of 66 Sqn Kuching detachment needed extra help to catch up on modifications I was despatched to Kuching on a Beverley. Must say I found the flight (up in the boom) to be very peaceful and relaxing. The aircrew were reputed to navigate outbound by dead-reckoning and then return by following the oil slick...........

Sad to say that later in my tour I was a member of the working party sent across Seletar airfield to strip the Bevs of anything useful then chop/hack/saw the twin tailplane off, prior to local scrap merchants descending mob-handed to finish the job. Had I been tasked with carrying out a similar task on the Whistling Tits, I would have done it with much greater gusto!

[Cornish Jack]

ZeBedie
Ah yes, the dreaded prop interruptor switches!!:mad:
Yet another retrofit to sort out problems with the prop de-icing IIRC. Unfortunately they required reselection/deselection when using reverse thrust and if you got it wrong you were stuck in reverse. Needless to say, such a potential 'Murphy' didn't take long to surface - one of the early 30 Sqn aircraft was being parked in a dispersal, at Dishforth, using reverse thrust but with the switches deselected - dispersal sloped down in the direction of travel.... attempts to get out of reverse failed and subsequent brake application produced the inevitable rotation onto the tail:ooh:
Happy days:ok:

[I16]

Extracts from a letter written by Group Captain F.C. Griffiths Blackburn Beverley, XM104 RAF Transport Command.
" ......... on our way to Rotorua [in the vicinity of Ohakune] we saw a plume of white smoke in a deep valley. As we got nearer it manifested itself as a cropdusting [topdressing] operation. I took the power off and we watched from about two miles away as he dropped his load, landed on the small farm strip and picked up another load and took off. It was the first time I'd seen cropdusting and it was a very slick operation, maybe only four minutes between take-off's.
We'd been briefed to fly low and show the Beverley to the inhabitants so here was an opportunty!
I don't think either the pilot of the cropduster or the loading party on the ground had any idea we were standing off at reduced power and I judged it nicely. The Beverley is a superb aircraft though large for landing in small places at low speed. As the cropduster took off we came in just behind him to the utter astonishment of the party on the ground. I don't suppose four engined aircraft often came into their farm strip. I touched our wheels and off we went to Rotorua.
I'm not exactly sure where this place was as we were a bit lost at the time but at least there must be someone who will remember the incident....."

I16

[larssnowpharter]

I recall a senior USAF guy who said he had flown the Beverley; possibly an exchange tour. He described it thus:
'Great ship. Take anything nowhere.'

On the subject of hooks and such, I have a vague recollection of seeing a Beverley flying with what can only be desribed as a bloody great net hanging out the back. Possibly South cerney. Any thoughts?

[Mr_Grubby]

Anybody, Ex Bevs, Akrotiri '61-62 remember this incident ?
The best I can recall.

……..the Beverley’s were amazing aircraft. From our school playground at Akrotiri we could watch their ops. They would load up with parachutists and stagger up to a suitable height and deposit these unfortunate soles on the salt flats just to the north of Akrotiri. Sometimes they would disgorge a Land Rover or Light Tank supported by several parachutes.

One morning we watched from the playground as a Beverley turned towards the DZ, its rear doors wide open. At the appropriate moment a Land Rover was dispatched out of the rear of the lumbering giant. It fell away and we all waited for the tell tail sign of the trail chute to appear. We waited and waited. One parachute opened but the other three just candled. The receiving ground crew were on the ball. As we watched for the other three parachutes to open they were already running.

The Land Rover hurtled into the ground at a huge rate of knots and disappeared in a cloud of sand and mud and metal. We kids shouted and cheered. Fantastic stuff, the likes of which we had never seen before. This was the only talking point in the playground for weeks to come.
Later that day, my father took me to the scene. The Land Rover was about two feet tall…………


Clint.

[Cornish Jack]

Mr Grubby - my first experience of heavy drops was out of Abingdon, detached from Dishforth. We were cleared to drop by the Range Controller and duly made the run. Quite quickly after release we got the following R/T call ... " Please inform the Captain that the load took three seconds to leave the aircraft and five seconds to hit the ground". With no previous experience of the drop sequence, the significance didn't register and the message was duly passed. The response was "WTF :mad: " and a VERY rapid (in Bev terms) whip around the circuit and a low level recce to view a distinctly flat Land Rover on its rather secondhand pallet.
Dropping things from the Bev was always interesting. On the initial trials of para drops from the boom in the combined para/heavy drop role, the dummies were released through the floor hatch but disappeared from view. Much puzzlement, until they were discovered lying in the freight bay, having been swept there by the reversed airflow caused by the doors being removed. Yet another retrofit, this time the "elephant's ears", thereafter used for mixed drop sorties.
Re. the senior 'septic' comment = take anything for SHORT DISTANCES - correct - that's what they were designed for and what they did supremely well. Problem was, as ever, Auntie Betty's Flying Club rarely used it in its intended role - plus ca change:mad:

[AT Mov]

Hi

gooselection of Beverley shots at http://www.abpic.co.uk/ just enter 'Beverley' in the keyword search.

ATM

[paull]

As a spotty teenager I used to hang around Paull airfield in the mid 70's hoping to save up the astronomical sum of 400 pounds for a PPL...
I was lucky enough to bum a lift in an Aztec (G-B*HJ) around 5pm on 30th Mar 1974 to meet the Beverley coming to become our new clubhouse! I remember that somone in the plane was filming, just before the pilot said "I won't be able to get much closer than this before we hit the......" and then everything was upside down for a while.
I couldn't believe it was going to get into our grass strip. Almost as much fun as someone's pal doing a touch and go in a Vulcan - rumour has it he lost his job for that one.
Paul(l)

[Robert Cooper]

The good old four fan cantilever council house. moved a lot of stuff with 34 Sqn at Seletar in '62. Good old days. At least, before the staish shut down the aircrew mess.

bob C

[Dan Winterland]

Seeing stuff being dropped from Beverleys at Akrotiri onto the salt flats is one of my earliest memories.

Someone asked about Sharjah. The old airfield at Sharjah doesn't exist now. It's now covered by buildings and a motorway junction so it can't bee seen on Google earth. The new Sharjah airport is a few miles away from the old one.

[Moose47]

Hi Milt

It was R.C.A.F. Station Namao, not Base. I was there from February 1961 to May 1963.

R.H. ‘Russ’ Janzen was a test pilot with the R.C.A.F.’s Central Experimental & Proving Establishment Climatic (evolved from C.E.P.E.’s Winter Experimental Establsihment). He flew the Beverly at Namao and also at R.C.A.F. Unit Fort Churchill, Manitoba. Flight Lieutenant Karl Weinstein was the R.C.A.F. ‘s Beverly project engineer.

The Beverly was tested by C.E.P.E. at Churchill during the winters of the 1956 and 1957. Once the proper mods were in place, the aircraft could conduct ops down to a temperature of – 40 degrees.

During one flight to Uranium City, Saskatchewan, the crew had to depart with ten inches of snow on the ground. No problem! Al they did was taxi the aircraft up and down the runway until they rolled three tracks in the snow and then off they went.

I heard that the Beverly’s interior noise level exceed that of the Canadair North Star. Now that is really loud.

The F-89 Scorpions were from the USAF’s 59th Fighter Interceptor Squadron. They belonged to the 64th Air Division.

I have a black and white photo of the Beverly at Namao if you are interested.

Contact me at: ccharlandATcogecodotca

Cheers…Chris

[Scoggy]

I have fond memories of clambering over XB261 when she was at Southend Historic Aircraft Museum.
She was ex A&AEE & probably had a harder life at the hands of the little oiks who used to spend many an hour pretending to be pilots in her. Seems amazing now that we had full access to the top deck, via the ladder. What would H&S say now?
When she finally met her end, one of her engines was, after it's removal with the aid of an oxy-acetelene torch & gravity, bought by a mechanic friend of mine as a 'rebuild to display condition, with cut-aways to show the internal workings'. When I asked him, why on earth he was taking on this slightly in-depth process, his reply was "Well, when you rebuild drag-racing engines for a living, you need a bit of a challenge, now & then to keep you interested"
RIP 261

[sycamore]

As a young and keen TP at AAEE in August`70 I got the opportunity to fly as a co-pilot in XB261 on an ULLA drop on the `Plain. The captain was a Canadian exchange pilot `Jake` Wormworth and as I was always trying to cadge trips when not testing helos, I was commandered to work the `engine-room` of the `Bev`. Can`t remember the exact details, but it was one of the last and largest loads dropped/pulled out , probably about 50k lbs,as a bit of one-upmanship to the Herc, which was also on trial,probably why there were no other co-pilots around . It was necessary to drop at about 15-20 foot sill height ,about 8-10 ft wheel height, and keep that height as the load was released,and pulled out the back,transient CofG change causing a lot of stick pushing/pulling and a lot of `engine-room` telegraphing as well. After a `dummy` run to co-ordinate ourselves, it all went well, and I managed to fly the `block-of-flats from a toilet window` back to B-D.... Sadly the a/c later went to Fboro, and later ,where-ever. Syc

[chevvron]

From Farnborough it went first to Luton for Court Line/Autair to use as an engine ferry for the RB211's on their TriStar fleet; then Court line promptly went bust! So it was ferried to Paull airfield near Hull by a Farnborough crew to become the clubhouse.

[JW411]

I think you are getting your Beverleys mixed up. I had it in my mind that the Southend Beverley XB261 was broken up there.

The one that went to Paull (and is the only survivor) was XB259.

[4PON4PIN]

JW411, back in Jan u wrote:
I will have you know that I am the proud possessor of the Firq - Saiq tie (navy blue with the Arabic number 4 in yellow circle emblazoned upon a palm tree)!
Got the same tie and only talking about it t'other day. Too slim for modern wear, but a great design. What a/c did you operate into Firq-Saiq x 4?

[JW411]

The HS 660 Argosy C.Mk.1.

[brakedwell]

4PON4PIN
Your "handle" suggests you were on Twin Pioneers at some time. I flew over two hundered Firq - Saiq - Firq and Saiq - Nizwa - Saiq sorties in the Twin Pin during my tour on 152 sqn in 1959/61. There was no tie in those days and the original 600m strip could be very demanding after midday due to the heat and turbulence on the approach.
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c32/sedgwickjames/SaiqTinPinLocals.jpg
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c32/sedgwickjames/Saiqrunway.jpg

[Moose47]

G'day

Here's some supplemental gen for you.

Beverley C. Mk. 1 - XB260

Beverley C. Mk. 1 - XB262 ‘Mayflower III’ also known as ‘The Ark’. A fire started in a covered engine stand surroundingNo. 4 engine on the 19th of February 1956 at R.C.A.F. Station Namao, Alberta. The fire damaged the engine and the propeller. The aircraft was subsequently repaired.

Cheers...Chris

[Milt]

Moose 47

Thanks for the gen on Namao and Beverley XB262. Wondering now why I didn't hear about the fire around No 4 engine before launching from Namao for birthplace Brough.

Are you able to post the Photo of 262 at Namao?

Incidently it was always a fascinating transition as a TP to mix flight tests on the Beverley with the three V bombers and the Comet 2C thrown in for good measure. Many of my flights in the Beverley were to clear the operation of the autopilot with some exciting rides as one determined the effects of full rate runaways.

Cannot recall the g limits for the Beverley nor its VNE. Can someone?

[ricardian]

Someone asked about Sharjah. The old airfield at Sharjah doesn't exist now. It's now covered by buildings and a motorway junction so it can't bee seen on Google earth. The new Sharjah airport is a few miles away from the old one.

Have only just discovered this thread. When I was posted (as an SAC Telegraphist) to RAF Sharjah in 1963 I travelled from Bahrain to Sharjah in a Beverley and on tourex (12 months later) went back to Bahrain in a Beverley. As a passenger the hardest bit was clambering up the ladder inside the freight deck to get onto the top deck whilst still clinging onto your RAF holdall.
--
Bruce Fletcher
Stronsay, Orkney

[old,not bold]

I apologise if someone has already said this, but I did'nt spot it in a quick scan of the thread.....

I'm wondering if the photos that kicked it off were not taken at Beihan, in what was the Aden Protectorate?

I was at Ataq for about 6 months with some artillery, and recall visiting Beihan where the 2004th Airfield Construction Squadron (I may have got the title wrong) was building a strip. They had been there for about 2 years, I was told, crushing rock, laying it, grading it, compacting it, and so on. The Flight Lt in charge was, to put it mildly, a bit doolally. Came the day it was finished, and to celebrate a party of bigwigs came up from Aden in an Army Beaver, followed sedately by a Beverley to inaugurate the new strip. The Beaver landed, the Bev did a magisterial circuit or two and then, watched by the bigwigs, touched down. As it did, a ripple developed from the mainwheels, as from a boat moving nicely in calm water, leaving a corrugated surface.

"Ah well" said the Senior Bigwig to the Flt Lt, "That's you here for another 2 years. Get it right next time". And they climbed back in the Beaver and left.

The Flt Lt went off and had a bottle or two, and then attacked his fellow officers (APL etc) in the mess with a khanja during that night's film show, accusing them of causing the problem. He was invalided out later. At the time, we just tied him down.

[forget]

ricardian, See this thread for lots on Sharjah.

http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=288546

[captain.speaking]

Was it not on the first ever flight of the Beverley when, as the aircraft got airborne, the Captain [assume it must have been Blackburn's chief test pilot?] is supposed to have turned to the P2 and said "my side's airborne, how about yours ? " !!

[JW411]

I still think the original photographs were taken at Firq. I used to go to Beihan pretty regularly and it was never that flat.

Incidentally, I have a colour slide somewhere in the attic of the local barber's shop in Beihan. The barber's chair is the captain's seat from XH118 of 30 Sqn which crashed at Beihan on 04/02/58.

[treadigraph]

Captain Speaking, yes I've heard that, it was Harold "Timber" Woods who said it.

[old,not bold]

JW411

I'm sure you are right; Firq it is. My recollections of Beihan are 47 years old!

[Milt]

During the early days of Beverley flight testing at Boscombe Down I used to be continually frustrated with engine starting. It seemed impossible to home in on the correct priming for those monster engines and there was much time spent overheating the long suffering starter motors.

We didn't sort the starting problem out in my time at BD.

The other persistent problem was failures of the electrical brush housings for control of the the props.

Did these problems persist in service?

[l.garey]

I just found this renewed thread on the Beverley. As Forget and Brakedwell will recall we exchanged some chat about Sharjah and Oman (including the Saiq strip) on the thread http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=288741


Perhaps Beverley related was a request I made for information on an old airfield near the Oman/UAE border on http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=288741
quote:
I wonder if anyone can help identify an old abandoned airfield situated in the United Arab Emirates, south of Al Wagam and Al Q'aa (about 180 km south of Al Ain). It is almost exactly at the intersection of 23N and 55E, which makes it easy to find. There are two large sand runways forming a « T » that is easily visible on Google Earth. Otherwise there are just dumps of old tyres and cars, including a Landrover. Some are obviously truck size sand tyres; others look more like aviation types (rounded profile, almost treadless). No buildings, but human debris (ACs, cooking things, the odd gin bottle etc). What is the name of this airfield, and when was it in use?

Several Ppruners gave me information about the fact that it was obviously oil-related, but no-one came up with a postive indentification.

Any information? Was it used by Beverleys?

[Roy Bouchier]

I recall that the Beverley was always referred to as 'an aluminium, petrol cooled, oil burning overcast.'
Wasn't there one on display at the RAF Museum some years ago? Is it still there?

[Amos Keeto]

Yes,the RAF Museum at Hendon had XH124 outside for a few years, until corrosion made it unsafe to keep any longer and sadly she got scrapped on site.:{

[Herod]

Sorted out how to post pictures, and found these two. The Beverley ran over a mine buried in the runway, which destroyed the starboard undercarriage. The result was a broken main spar and a written-off aircraft. I believe that within a day it had been booby-trapped by the dizzies, so salvage of anything became a problem.

http://i494.photobucket.com/albums/rr302/peter46/BeverleywreckHabilayn.jpg

http://i494.photobucket.com/albums/rr302/peter46/HabilaynWreckedBeverley.jpg

[JW411]

I seem to remember that it was a mine with a 105 mm shell packed alongside that caused the damage.

I also remember Captain Pat telling us that he was still trying to nosewheel steer as the wing sank gracefully to the ground whilst he tried to figure out what was going on.

They were headed back to Khormaksar when it happened. They apparently missed the mine by a few feet on the inbound flight when they were full of freight - some of it no doubt expolsive and flamable - so it could have been much worse.

[Herod]

A few days later the tanker which was being used to oil the sand on the runway ran over a mine in almost the same place. (A trailer, so no injuries) Two of us shot down there in a Landrover, from which I took the attached pictures. Then the thought struck us: "The Beverley ran over a mine here, the oiler has just run over a mine here....err?" You'd be surprised how accurately it is possible to reverse a Landrover along its outbound tracks!

http://i494.photobucket.com/albums/rr302/peter46/HabilaynOilerfire2.jpg

http://i494.photobucket.com/albums/rr302/peter46/HabilaynOilerfire.jpg

;)