Breguet Deux-Ponts at Evreux

[gunning]

On our way home from holiday we happened to pass near by Evreux air base, so I decided to be nosy and look over the fence.

Parked near the main gate was a lovely (?) old Deux-Ponts (or is it a Sahara or Provence?) . I can't post a photo as I haven't made enough posts before , but there are plenty of photos on the web.

I remember Air France occasionally flew them on cargo flights into Heathrow in the early '70s. A rare spot even then, to see one climb out close to our house. Does anyone else recall seeing them then?

PS I don't recommend being nosy around air bases ... my work colleague many years ago spent several months in a shared cell in a Greek prison, for a bit of plane spotting in the wrong place, wrong time.

[Airbanda]

On our way home from holiday we happened to pass near by Evreux air base, so I decided to be nosy and look over the fence.

Parked near the main gate was a lovely (?) old Deux-Ponts (or is it a Sahara or Provence?) . I can't post a photo as I haven't made enough posts before , but there are plenty of photos on the web.

I remember Air France occasionally flew them on cargo flights into Heathrow in the early '70s. A rare spot even then, to see one climb out close to our house. Does anyone else recall seeing them then?

PS I don't recommend being nosy around air bases ... my work colleague many years ago spent several months in a shared cell in a Greek prison, for a bit of plane spotting in the wrong place, wrong time.

This one is, or was last time I was round there, clearly visible from the public road. I think we'd stopped for fuel nearby at a Le Clerc place on the N13 but may have got that round my neck.

[chevvron]

The Air France Deux Ponts used to leave Heathrow for Paris every morning about 7 am in 1970/71. Like the BEA Argosy which would depart a couple of hours earlier, it would barely be able to fly the required SID altitudes, passing Fairoaks at about 1000ft if you were lucky and just about managiing 4,000ft by the south coast.

[DaveReidUK]

The aircraft at Evreux is a Br.765 Sahara (501), which has been a gate guardian there for the best part of 50 years.

And yes, I remember seeing a Deux Ponts at Heathrow, though only on one occasion.

[Dave Gittins]

I recall them at Heathrow from my plane spotting days in about 1967. Think I also saw them from the banks of the Duke of Northumberland’s river, when C-46 s and the like could also be seen.

That would have been on Saturday afternoons walking my uncles dog.

[Pypard]

On our way home from holiday we happened to pass near by Evreux air base, so I decided to be nosy and look over the fence.
PS I don't recommend being nosy around air bases ... my work colleague many years ago spent several months in a shared cell in a Greek prison, for a bit of plane spotting in the wrong place, wrong time.

Never had a problem with this, even in the paranoid US of States, where an interesting aircraft plonked on a gate still seems to be considered Top Secret. The key there being to tell the guys on the gate what you're up to. I wouldn't suggest doing it in China but I think that's obvious.

[Cornish Jack]

Late 50s, a Deux-Ponts generated a foolish momentary 'mole-skin trousers' moment.
Doing a supernumerary check ride on a Bev, heading home over France. Very strong and variable headwind at 8k- ish, so the reporting point estimates became extended and changeable. An Air France D-P was reporting 10 minutes behind us at the same level and I followed his progress. We were flying in and out of cloud tops with thicker scattered banks above. Nav started muttering about ":mad: headwinds" messing up his calculations and added 6minutes, or so, to the next RP time. Heard nothing similar from the D-P and, out of interest, climbed onto the astrodome step and looked rearward. There was a full moon, and at the precise moment that I peered out, this great blazing light appeared between the tailfins, bearing down on us. ... or so my idiot brain translated what it saw. .. the D-P having, miraculously, caught up on us !!! :ugh::ugh::ugh: ...
In the real world, a break in the upper cloudbank had exposed the full moon, but in the 2-3 seconds before realisation, 'half-a-crown/sixpence' became uncontrolled currency !!
Idle minds in active aircraft are not to be recommended !:(

[Discorde]

Snapped this one at LHR in 1962.

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/1464x708/deuxpontsv2_f3677af9544de04aa700785345764b9edb8dce65.jpg

[Sevarg]

If you want to get close and personal to one head for Ailes Anciennes Toulouse https://aatlse.org/en/ They are restoring one along with many other types. Well worth a trip.

[Pypard]

Ailes Anciennes Toulouse are making slow but steady progress on their aircraft: last time I saw it, the engines and cowlings were back on and it will be a gem once it's done. I hope they can then get it under cover.

[pax britanica]

I well remeber seeing the wonderful deux ponts also from the Duke of Northumberlands River area. Many a warm summer weekend aftrnoon spent betqween that river and Longford river just west of the emergency service gate by the Rising Sun pub in Stanwell . Opposite Block 79 where 09/27 joined 23R . I dont remeber seeing them departing off 27L , i could see almost all departures from my house in stanwell Vilage butas has been poinet out the Dp didnt really climb it just sort of gently eased itself skywards and so was probably just below my line of site. The C46s (Capitol??) on charter to LH also looked like climbing was a desperate struggle.

Fascinating days and while you did have to put up with a huge number of BEA Viscounts the varierty of aircraft was fantastic . If we were really lucky there were some depatures off 23R they really did seem like you could rech up and touch them from our spotting spot

[chevvron]

I only saw them departing from 10L (now 09L); I was working at the radar unit on the north side ('London ATCC') during most of 1970 and the car park (or the canteen if I'd arrived early) gave an excellent view. They would roll from just outside this radar unit (which was just west of the tunnel) heading east; line up, full throttle and go; no slowly opening up the engines and as Pax says, slowly easing itself off the ground.

[eckhard]

There’s one here
48°42'25"N 2°54'15"E
I believe it’s used as a café?

[Liffy 1M]

Ailes Anciennes Toulouse are making slow but steady progress on their aircraft: last time I saw it, the engines and cowlings were back on and it will be a gem once it's done. I hope they can then get it under cover.

I was there in 2019 and got an escorted visit on board - en Francais, of course.

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/2000x1333/504230319_2fjg_84435ef1cc25d27274f413eabe3e46eb6d962158.jpg
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/2000x1320/504230319_1fjg_c3269edec01b6fb344c88023ca58337a500acb08.jpg
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/2000x1379/504230319_3fjg_a91e0a6744d1bba3be34333ee7fb1ab1652a97eb.jpg

[OUAQUKGF Ops]

VFR Only then ?

[SWBKCB]

There’s one here
48°42'25"N 2°54'15"E
I believe it’s used as a café?

This one. Think it has been disused for a while.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/swbkcb/4510547793/

[treadigraph]

There’s one here
48°42'25"N 2°54'15"E
I believe it’s used as a café?
Here's another one arriving at Tarbes-Laloubere (https://www.google.com/maps/@43.2154764,0.0792068,1181m/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu)... broken up in '81...

https://youtu.be/KKwJfV9O4gc

[BSAA1947]

Here are the very poor quality photos I took in about 1970 as an enthusiastic nine year-old lad with my Kodak Instamatic of one of those early morning Breguet 763 Air France cargo flights mentioned above, preparing for departure from Heathrow. This one is F-BASN.

We used to regularly see those flights over our house (in Egham) and my father (a BOAC engineer) had a chat with the Air France engineers and arranged for the family to go to Heathrow early one morning to have a look over the aircraft before departure.

I'll always remember the wonderful sound as those Breguets flew over.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/1920x1973/breguet_4_b525f5b47ba9d535cfde41d2c40f7276da4436ba.jpg
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/1932x1973/breguet_3_8409c1226f2bfc5d7225ff13ff4e50b3a102015b.jpg
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/1909x1950/breguet_1_59fe33ca146026ae56d9716b675f87e5fa0ddc44.jpg
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/1901x1936/breguet_2_4bf94353132c3718fb8001e005c71d4885064569.jpg

[Asturias56]

jeez - look at all the switches in that cockpit...................... :eek:

[Pypard]

Here's another one arriving at Tarbes-Laloubere (https://www.google.com/maps/@43.2154764,0.0792068,1181m/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu)... broken up in '81...

https://youtu.be/KKwJfV9O4gc

Lovely film: thankyou so much for posting.

[pax britanica]

Also thnaks for posting the pics and video. Oddly while I can quite vividly remember the Deux Pont s at LHR in the mid 60s I can not recall ever seeing one land so the video was very special

[WHBM]

Many accounts of seeing the "Duck's Pants" at Heathrow, where it appears to have made a somewhat random range of freight operations, from noisy scarcely-climbing full power departures in the middle of the night, to photos of it there in broad daylight. But the one I saw was at Bristol Lulsgate. 1968 I think, and I had got hold of an Air France timetable which in an obscure corner showed a couple of late afternoon flights a week from Bristol to Paris by a type "Breg". Not knowing what it was, my curiosity took me out on the local bus at the stipulated time, and there it was, highlighted on the skyline. The only apparent passenger for it appeared to be an elegant young French au-pair, also on the bus; the terminal was otherwise deserted, but a walk round the outside gave a sudden unimpeded view of the ramp, and there it was. Shame I couldn't stay to see it go. Apparently it used to bring various freight consignments from France to BAC at Bristol, which would be trucked over to Filton, so may have contributed in a very minor way to the Concorde programme.

Initially a true double decker, and used from the mid-1950s on operations from France to Algeria, it was fairly early converted to a Combi. Someone can advise which floor had the freight, and which the apparently small number of remaining seats. It was then used mostly as a freighter, but a few operations for passengers like this Bristol one remained. I believe 12 were built for Air France, and another four for the air force, including the one described above at Evreux. In usual French fashion they seem to have used a range of model numbers and names for it. Half the Air France fleet were converted to those Combis, lasting I think to around 1971, and the others were passed on to the air force to join their brethren there from new. Several of the air force ones were sent to the South Pacific, to support the French nuclear test sites there out of Tahiti; I think they were abandoned there. The ferry out must have been interesting.

The engines were Pratts, four R-2800s like a DC-6, though performance was way worse, it must have had considerable drag. But it never seems to have had an accident.

[treadigraph]

Can't say I've ever seen one though must have come within a sniff of the two near Paris. Thought there was one at Le Bourget when I first visited in 1987 but it seems not...