Old routes Trinidad to LHR

[kd2473]

If anyone could help with this I'd be so grateful! My father is sure he flew on a Bristol Britannia from Trinidad to LHR via New York on 6 Jan 1963.

I think it must have been with BOAC. I have been trying to find anything to show which aircraft he flew on to see if I can source an old photo of it. The only timetable I could find was the one for autumn 1962 not the Jan 1963 one.

Can anyone point me in the right direction? Many thanks for any help!

[canberra97]

Have you tried an internet search or Googled it as I am 100% sure that your find all the information that your asking!

Have you tried departedflights.com or oldtimetableimages.com?

Your father is correct as in that era BOAC did fly from London to Port of Spain via IDL and also NAS with the Bristol Britannia.

[kd2473]

Thanks for replying. Yes, tried both of those. That's how I have the timetable for 1962, but that shows type not number. I have googled my socks off, hence why I'm now coming to the experts ;)
Thanks anyway!

[DaveReidUK]

but that shows type not number

What is it you're actually trying to find?

[kd2473]

What is it you're actually trying to find?

The actual plane he would have flown on (G-Xxxx) so I can see if I can find a photo of it!

[lotus1]

With regards to flights to Trinidad Danair in the late sixties seventies did operate a couple of special charters with comets beleive routed Lisbon laspalmas also the Azores was used what a flight

[Bergerie1]

BOAC were certainly operating Britannia 312 aircraft in 1963 across the Atlantic to New York and down to Bermuda and the Caribbean. I can't answer your question about Trinidad because when I was on Britannias I only got as far as Bermuda.

Try contacting the British Airways Heritage Centre, I am sure they could help:-
https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/information/about-ba/history-and-heritage/heritage-collection

[DaveReidUK]

The actual plane he would have flown on (G-Xxxx) so I can see if I can find a photo of it!

Understood. Sadly, the chances of finding that out that information more than 50 years after then event are very slim to non-existent.

Airlines don't tend to keep records of which aircraft registration operated which flight for very long after the event, because there's no need (and even if they did, it's unlikely they would survive after all this time).

It would be the individual aircraft's technical logs that recorded the information you need, but in the case of BA and its predecessors those weren't computerised until the mid-1970s and any previous paper records are likely to be long gone.

But you never know ...

[kd2473]

Ah I didn't realise that. Thank you, probably not worth spending so many hours looking then! I'll contact the Heritage centre and have a trawl through online pics but probably leave it there.

As a complete aside, are there still places (online or in real life) which sell the old photos? I can find lots of online images but very few to purchase.

[captain.speaking]

The Surrey History Centre at Woking hold the historic ATC logs for Heathrow and Gatwick. The Heathrow logs for November 1962 to February 1963 are held under reference "3446/box23". The Heathrow logs are not complete, and some are missing, but it might be worth checking to find Heathrow arrivals for January 07 1963 to see if you can find something which matches up with the published schedule for the flight - if so, this might show the registration of the particular aircraft, as from memory, flight numbers were not used so much in those days.

[canberra97]

With regards to flights to Trinidad Danair in the late sixties seventies did operate a couple of special charters with comets beleive routed Lisbon laspalmas also the Azores was used what a flight

Which is rather irrelevant in this discussion!

[Groundloop]

Which is rather irrelevant in this discussion!

But thread creep is a Pprune speciality!

[canberra97]

It's even worse on the A.net forums especially by the Americans
and the new kids on the block.

I try and nip in the bud because before we know it we are discussing something totally different to what was originally the topic which I personally find frustrating.

[Tim Zukas]

The January 1963 OAG shows a weekly all-coach Britannia leaving Trinidad 1130 Saturday, stopping Barbados and Antigua and arriving NY at 1945. A second weekly freq was to start Tue 22 Jan. Both operated by BWIA.

All-coach Britannias daily except Tuesday east from NY thru 9 January, then just SunThuFriSat. All leave NY 2030-- one to three stops to LHR.

[WHBM]

BWIA never had Britannias, they were BOAC operations and crews. BOAC at the time owned BWIA ("Britain's Worst Investment Abroad") and indeed most of their aircraft as well, the largest of which then were Viscounts which were in a BOAC-lookalike blue livery apart from the titles. These operated, in return, some BOAC-badged Caribbean flights.


What I can tell the OP is that their flights would have been on the larger Britannia 300 series rather than the 100 series Britannias, which not only no longer crossed the Atlantic by then but were wholly withdrawn from BOAC ops on 31 January 1963, some only having lasted less than 6 years. The larger aircraft were gone a couple of years later as well, having been in service for just a similar length of time. It's not as if there was a good secondhand market for them either, as a number hung around stored at Cambridge and elsewhere for years afterwards. The very last BOAC Britannia ops were not out of London, but from New York down to Bermuda and Caribbean points, although the crews always positioned to/from Heathrow.

The most comprehensive account of BOAC Britannia operations is, as ever, in Propliner magazine, in this case issue 26, dated Spring 1986, taking up a good proportion of that issue. I see this from the index, but alas mine are all stored up in the attic.

[Tim Zukas]

BOAC's listing in the OAG says BWIA operated the Trinidad-to-NY Britannias. No idea whether it's true. It says BWIA also operated the thrice-weekly jets (unspecified) from Trinidad to NY.

[DaveReidUK]

A few BOAC Britannias operated for a short time with BWIA titles:

http://www.aviationphotocompany.com/img/s/v-3/p2069975897-3.jpg