Bovingdon: 1950s, a small airline??

[PAXboy]

Talking today with people in Hemel Hempstead, they recalled a small airline operating from Bovingdon to Paris in the early and/or mid 50s.

I know nothing more than that!! So ... any ideas??

[David Eyre]

Hi PAXboy,
A quick search on Google provided some answers.
More detailed history on post-War civil flights:
http://www.answers.com/topic/raf-bovingdon
History of Bovingdon airfield:
http://www.bovingdon.org/bovairfield.asp
Quote from the above site:
"There were also several civil Operators using Handley Page Hermes and Avro York aircraft."
Another site:
http://www.rafupwood.co.uk/recollections.html
Has one line related to Bovingdon - "Bovingdon airport was used by Silver City Airways for the occasional flight to Europe."
Regards,
David

[chevvron]

Freddy Laker made his first start there during the Berlin Airlift.

[PAXboy]

Thank You DA, I confess that I had not done a basic search as I thought the info too obscure. And, to some degree, that appears to be the case. From the sites visited thus far (others as well as the ones you found) have not produced any firm information about which civil carriers operated from there in the 1950s and what routes they served.

[jb.murdstone]

Hunting-Clan (one of the forerunners of BUA) operated out of Bovingdon in the early fifties. Could be the small airline referred to. No further info I'm afraid.

JBM

[Speedbird48]

I was there in 1953 if that is any help.

There were 2 airlines with bases there, Hunting Clan with Vikings, that moved out to Heathrow, and Skyways.

Hunting Clan had Vikings but, as far as the memory goes, did not run any scheduled services.

Skyways at Bovingdon was a result of Eric Rylands buying the Lancashire Aircraft Corp'. Lancashire had the contract to maintain the Fighter Command Comm' squadron and the Coastal one as well. When that contract lapsed they all became Skyways employees and overhauled, Check 5, a York. That was when I joined.

Skyways then bought 10 Handley Page Hermes from BOAC, and after some BOAC union issues they were ferried to Bovingdon for conversion to trooping airplanes.

All 10 were converted, a couple went to Middle East Airlines for a contract and another to Kuwait although for short periods of time. The rest flew to Cyprus and Singapore carrying troops. They operated out of Blackbushe as the contract had some ties to Airwork, who also had some Hermes but not enough to run the contract.

Once they were all converted an running Skyways shut down the Bovingdon base and moved everything to Stansted.

There were no other airlines there. The USAF had a hangar with a bunch of C-47's, Hunting Clan had another, Skyways another ,and the Comm' flights the remaining one. There was a small terminal and I seem to remember it had customs, mainly for the military.

Brian.

[brakedwell]

Following on from Speedbird48, I was at Bovingdon in 1961/2. The USAF were still in situ with half a dozen C 47's. Fighter Comm Sqn were equipped with 6 Ansons, 1 Valletta, 1 Devon, 1 Meteor T7 and a Meteor NF14 with camera mounts for air to air photography. Coastal Comm Flt had four Ansons, (3 Mk 19's and a 21) and a VIP Valletta. Short's had the servicing contract. The French Air Force/Navy had a Fouga Magister based there for use by military attaches at the London embassy.
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c32/sedgwickjames/Anson19.jpg

[Speedbird48]

Now you have stired up the grey stuff.

The Italian embassy had a SM-109?? based at Bovingdon for their embassy. It never moved, looked like an Anson, and had wicker seats.

The french also had a Nord 1002 at Northolt for many years, in the '60's, that also never flew. It was run once a month by a french air force Warrant Officer of some sort.

Brian.

[merv32249213]

Went on a course to the States, in the 60's with my line boss (Bill?) who was once at Bovingdon with Skyways and lived at Hemel Hempstead.
Bill was later to be the line boss of Euravia, and then Britannia.

He recalled that when the Americans moved out of Bovingdon, a large deep hole was dug and filled with brand new snap on tools and covered over, to the dismay of English fitters who had to buy their own .
Was this true, or was it just aviation folklore, one will never know
Merv.

[chevvron]

In my recollection, the Nord 1002's were used as substitute Me109's for filming. The French Air Attache had a Fouga Magister there; used to nip off to Paris on saturday mornings. Used to do wonderful 'wet' starts.
613 VGS from Halton occasionally operated a DF there prior to 617 moving in from Hendon. I was a staff cadet on 613 and gained my Soaring Certificate (BGA 'C' Cert) there.

[Speedbird48]

The hole full of USAF equipment is very probable as the US Navy did the same thing at Hendon when they moved to Blackbushe. The secret is to find an old fart that remembers where the hole was?? And, this one had already gone to Stansted when the USAF packed up at Bovingdon.

I probably worked with "Bill" what was his surname??

The Nord 1002 that I refered to was at Northolt from 1959 until I left in '62. It lived in a hanger West of the tower together with the RCAF C-47 that is now the one with the B of B flight. As I said it never flew and most certainly was never a '109 stand-in.

[chevvron]

The Dakota with BBMF is ex RAE; was at West Freugh as KG661 and on transfer to Farnborough, an eagle eyed spotter at Brize quietly pointed out that KG661 was recorded as written off sometime in the '40s, so it was quietly re-painted as ZH947!

[bovingdonboy]

One company that seemed to operate from Bovingdon around the mid-fifties was Hunting Clan, flying at least one Avro York.
I have a picture of this aircraft which I took on one of my many visits to Bovingdon as an ATC cadet when we used to cycle out there from Watford to go flying, mainly in Ansons but on one occasion I did get a flight to Leuchars in the resident Devon, a beautiful little 'plane.

[Maccadog1944]

Does anyone remember a New Zealand Flight Lieutenant John Alfred Scott?

[oxenos]

My first flight was with Hunting Clan to Malta in '54, at the age of 11, when my Naval father was appointed there. The aircraft was a Viking, appropriately registered G-AHOY.

[HP115]

Ref posts 9 and 11. The gentlemans name was Bill Atkins who was preceded by Ron Hatton.

[bigal1941]

Nobody has mentioned a small airline called William Dempster that used Bovingdon together with Blackbush and Stanstead with 2 Tudors and a Dakota to fly low cost flights to South Africa. A well know Polish pioneer of British Charter airlines was involved, and indeed bounced a Tudor off the end of the runway at Bovingdon and wrote it off, the plane not the runway !! Hope this helps. Alan

[l.garey]

Speedbird, re your post 11:
The Nord 1002 that I refered to was at Northolt from 1959 until I left in '62. It lived in a hanger West of the tower together with the RCAF C-47 that is now the one with the B of B flight. As I said it never flew and most certainly was never a '109 stand-in.

I wonder if the Nord you refer to is in fact this Nord 1101 that I photographed at Northolt in July 1959.

http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc39/apollo-fox/16.7.59%20Northolt%20C131%205291%20%20Nord%20110l%20no%2074_ zpsr6reopig.jpg[/URL]

[DaveReidUK]

I wonder if the Nord you refer to is in fact this Nord 1101 that I photographed at Northolt in July 1959.Which, incidentally, is still flying:

http://aero6.perso.sfr.fr/gfx/6aa078.jpg

[one11]

Another operator from Bovingdon 1950/1 was Trans World Charter who also maintained their Vikings there. If they flew to Paris it would have been on one-off charters.

[BEagle]

I vaguely remember seeing a Nord 1101 Noralpha (French-built Me 208) sometime back in the early 1960s - it was near either Thruxton or Blackbushe as we were driving up to London on the A303/A30 at the time and it was approaching one or other aerodrome with its gear down.

It certainly wasn't a Nord 1002 Pingouin (French-built Bf108) as it had that rather gangly tricycle undercarriage, identifying it as an 1101.