Avro Lancastrian Tales
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Finally back from holiday, and managed to scan and OCR some of 'Star Dust Falling'. Maybe not quite as juicy as my original 'Have you heard what some of the BSAA Stargirls used to get up to?!' suggested though!
'Even the stewardesses were called Stargirls. On this flight (BSAA's inaugural, on 1 Jan 1946) it was a young woman called Mary Guthrie, for whom the job was a bit of a comedown given her expertise. During the war she had been a pilot, ferrying aircraft between workshops and airfields. Now, in peacetime, she had to take what she could get, and upperclass skivvying for BSAA at least promised travel and had a certain cinematic glamour.
It didn't promise comfort. The cabin was just 1.82 metres wide and 1.9 metres high. At the front, behind the flight deck, was a cramped galley from where the girls, sometimes in pairs, usually working alone, were to serve defrosted meals called 'Frood', which had been prepared by the Lyons Tea House company. It was, the Stargirls would all eventually agree, pretty foul stuff. Most of them would avoid eating the hideous versions of chicken a la king or veal blanquette prepared for the passengers. Instead they made do with endless cups of tea sweetened with condensed milk, or the soup and orange juice which they carried in vacuum flasks for the passengers. At first washing up the china - and it always was china - was a chore. There was just a sink with cold water and no detergent, nor anywhere to put the dishes when they were done. Only later would the company start offloading the unwashed crockery at each stopover. As to drink, there was a box bar containing spirits plus a good supply of raw Chilean red wine which, for some reason, the passengers didn't appreciate. As time passed and the flights became routine, some of the more worldly Stargirls took to finishing off the bottles in the galley during the endlessly dull stretches when there was nothing to do, filling their mouths with peppermints afterwards to hide the smell.
And then there were the opportunities for free enterprise. The Stargirls and crew were paid their expenses at the rate of 17 Argentinian pesos to the pound, but in the change shops of Buenos Aires you could get a rate of 10 pesos. Those with Spanish and initiative in equal measure would make for the change shops to cash up the moment they landed. When BSAA routes extended to the West Indies one Stargirl called Jean Fowler, an Anglo-Argentinian who had taken the job to avoid going back to teaching after years in the women's auxiliary air force, discovered there was profit to be made elsewhere. She could pick up bottles of Johnny Walker and Black Label whisky in the grocery shops of Bermuda for five shillings. She then resold them in the nightclubs of Santiago, Chile, for the equivalent of £8. She bought beautifully stitched crocodile handbags, just the one a trip, to be resold in Britain at a massive profit, and even a fur coat, which she claimed to British customs was her own. Half a century later she looks back at her life of petty crime, shifting contraband back and forth across the borders of Latin America, with curiosity. 'Frankly I don't know why every girl didn't do it,' she says. 'It was so simple. But then they didn't all have a lot of gumption.' To work as a Stargirl for BSAA you had to be unmarried and of 'a certain class'. The airline only wanted what they defined as 'nice girls' and while some like Jean had come to adulthood during the curious freedoms of the war, for many others BSAA was their first job after leaving home. They would no sooner have taken to a little bit of smuggling on the side than they would have sworn in church.'
And this further extract from 'Two Feet In The Air':
Most of (the Stargirls) came directly to the airline from the W.A.A.F. or W.R.N.S. and some of them spoke Spanish or Portuguese having originally been volunteers from South America. B.S.A.A. was one of the first British airlines to employ stewardesses and there were considerable numbers of applicants for the few vacancies. Their pay was pitifully low, under three pounds a week. One of them related to me an account of her interview prior to her acceptance by the airline. She was told very bluntly that she would always have her own room when on service and a key to lock it. Accordingly the Company did not wish to hear of any complaints by girls of propositions by amorous pilots. Girls came cheaply and were easily replaced. Good licensed pilots were a rare breed and would not be dispensed with for frivolous reasons. "On my first trip," she said, "I locked the door and wedged a chair against the lock but nothing untoward threatened. So next trip I just locked the door. After my third trip my morale was really shattered. I gave up locking the door and took to looking up and down the passage and wondering what everyone else was doing'.
Can scan and OCR plenty more if anyone is interested - 'Two Feet In The Air' has quite a bit of detail about BSAA. Just check out the pictures of how BSAA's Ops HQ and the passenger handling marquee at LHR looked in 1947! Puts T5 to shame, doesn't it?!
'Even the stewardesses were called Stargirls. On this flight (BSAA's inaugural, on 1 Jan 1946) it was a young woman called Mary Guthrie, for whom the job was a bit of a comedown given her expertise. During the war she had been a pilot, ferrying aircraft between workshops and airfields. Now, in peacetime, she had to take what she could get, and upperclass skivvying for BSAA at least promised travel and had a certain cinematic glamour.
It didn't promise comfort. The cabin was just 1.82 metres wide and 1.9 metres high. At the front, behind the flight deck, was a cramped galley from where the girls, sometimes in pairs, usually working alone, were to serve defrosted meals called 'Frood', which had been prepared by the Lyons Tea House company. It was, the Stargirls would all eventually agree, pretty foul stuff. Most of them would avoid eating the hideous versions of chicken a la king or veal blanquette prepared for the passengers. Instead they made do with endless cups of tea sweetened with condensed milk, or the soup and orange juice which they carried in vacuum flasks for the passengers. At first washing up the china - and it always was china - was a chore. There was just a sink with cold water and no detergent, nor anywhere to put the dishes when they were done. Only later would the company start offloading the unwashed crockery at each stopover. As to drink, there was a box bar containing spirits plus a good supply of raw Chilean red wine which, for some reason, the passengers didn't appreciate. As time passed and the flights became routine, some of the more worldly Stargirls took to finishing off the bottles in the galley during the endlessly dull stretches when there was nothing to do, filling their mouths with peppermints afterwards to hide the smell.
And then there were the opportunities for free enterprise. The Stargirls and crew were paid their expenses at the rate of 17 Argentinian pesos to the pound, but in the change shops of Buenos Aires you could get a rate of 10 pesos. Those with Spanish and initiative in equal measure would make for the change shops to cash up the moment they landed. When BSAA routes extended to the West Indies one Stargirl called Jean Fowler, an Anglo-Argentinian who had taken the job to avoid going back to teaching after years in the women's auxiliary air force, discovered there was profit to be made elsewhere. She could pick up bottles of Johnny Walker and Black Label whisky in the grocery shops of Bermuda for five shillings. She then resold them in the nightclubs of Santiago, Chile, for the equivalent of £8. She bought beautifully stitched crocodile handbags, just the one a trip, to be resold in Britain at a massive profit, and even a fur coat, which she claimed to British customs was her own. Half a century later she looks back at her life of petty crime, shifting contraband back and forth across the borders of Latin America, with curiosity. 'Frankly I don't know why every girl didn't do it,' she says. 'It was so simple. But then they didn't all have a lot of gumption.' To work as a Stargirl for BSAA you had to be unmarried and of 'a certain class'. The airline only wanted what they defined as 'nice girls' and while some like Jean had come to adulthood during the curious freedoms of the war, for many others BSAA was their first job after leaving home. They would no sooner have taken to a little bit of smuggling on the side than they would have sworn in church.'
And this further extract from 'Two Feet In The Air':
Most of (the Stargirls) came directly to the airline from the W.A.A.F. or W.R.N.S. and some of them spoke Spanish or Portuguese having originally been volunteers from South America. B.S.A.A. was one of the first British airlines to employ stewardesses and there were considerable numbers of applicants for the few vacancies. Their pay was pitifully low, under three pounds a week. One of them related to me an account of her interview prior to her acceptance by the airline. She was told very bluntly that she would always have her own room when on service and a key to lock it. Accordingly the Company did not wish to hear of any complaints by girls of propositions by amorous pilots. Girls came cheaply and were easily replaced. Good licensed pilots were a rare breed and would not be dispensed with for frivolous reasons. "On my first trip," she said, "I locked the door and wedged a chair against the lock but nothing untoward threatened. So next trip I just locked the door. After my third trip my morale was really shattered. I gave up locking the door and took to looking up and down the passage and wondering what everyone else was doing'.
Can scan and OCR plenty more if anyone is interested - 'Two Feet In The Air' has quite a bit of detail about BSAA. Just check out the pictures of how BSAA's Ops HQ and the passenger handling marquee at LHR looked in 1947! Puts T5 to shame, doesn't it?!
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Hi AirportsEd
I hadn't heard of it either until reading this thread.
He's called Archie Jackson - see below. Writing style very 'Boys Own Paper' but entertaining all the same.
I hadn't heard of it either until reading this thread.
He's called Archie Jackson - see below. Writing style very 'Boys Own Paper' but entertaining all the same.
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Airports Ed As I picked up the Lanc at LAP/LHR/Heathrow and was a hangar Brat I can't comment on the spares situation we seemed to manage . but prior to the Lanc I worked the Halton/Haslifax both in the hangar and workshop at Bovingdon and a lot of Spares were obtained from brand new Halifaxes which were being scrapped, Retested and recertified by certified inspectors and fitted to the aircraft when needed , if that was carried out on the Lancs I Don't know he only thing which wasn't tested were the Time Delay fuses for the Engine fire system, when you pressed the fire extinguisher button it fired the 1st of 3 bottles into the carburettor also set a BURNING fuse which 5 seconds later blew bottles 2 and3 which Hopefully extinguished any flame around the engine.Don't think they would allowthat these days.
You will also get lots of information on BSAA operations from a very detailed article by Don Brown in Air Pictorial Nov 1974 and Dec 1974.
Most detail about the Lancastrian in the Nov 1974 edition.
Both available at this time on ebay.
Mike
Most detail about the Lancastrian in the Nov 1974 edition.
Both available at this time on ebay.
Mike
You will also get lots of information on BSAA operations from a very detailed article by Don Brown in Air Pictorial Nov 1974 and Dec 1974
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Thanks avionic type, very interesting.
Do you know where those new Halifaxes were being scrapped? I wondered if it was a case of 'you' having the entire aircraft on site and taking what you needed or whether the parts were being delivered to you from a dedicated salvage company or even direct from the manufacturer or RAF.
Thanks Mike6567 - will take a look...
Thanks WHBM - must climb up in the loft and find my old Propliner copies...those articles must have been deleted from my memory over the years!
Do you know where those new Halifaxes were being scrapped? I wondered if it was a case of 'you' having the entire aircraft on site and taking what you needed or whether the parts were being delivered to you from a dedicated salvage company or even direct from the manufacturer or RAF.
Thanks Mike6567 - will take a look...
Thanks WHBM - must climb up in the loft and find my old Propliner copies...those articles must have been deleted from my memory over the years!
must climb up in the loft and find my old Propliner copies
It's in Propliner 22 (Spring 85), article "Star Memories". Just four pages but interesting stuff. Brown writes that he had been at Miles Aircraft, seemingly as a company/test pilot (his article on the Aerovan is in issue 23), but after they went bust in 1947 he moved to BSAA in charge of pilot documentation. And from his stories, they needed it.
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Airports Ed, Though I wasn't one of the BOAC gang I believe spare parts lists were submitted to the Air Ministry and permission was given I believe to remove them from brand new Halifax's at I think ,White Waltham where they were being scrapped, all I remember was we had a lot of different spares going through the Electrical /Instrument at that time they must have had paper work to be transferred to civilian use and be recertified .
the talk at the time was the planes had to be built as per contract test flown and then sent for scrap why the didn't scrap all the old planes the RAF were flying and given the brand new ones words fail me I met up with the Halifax again with 224 Squadron at Gibraltar and the were a heap of rubbish thank goodness we got the Shackleton 8 months later
the talk at the time was the planes had to be built as per contract test flown and then sent for scrap why the didn't scrap all the old planes the RAF were flying and given the brand new ones words fail me I met up with the Halifax again with 224 Squadron at Gibraltar and the were a heap of rubbish thank goodness we got the Shackleton 8 months later
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Thanks AT,
Many years ago I heard a virtually identical story about brand new Halibags begin test-flown for the first time immediately before scrapping, though I cannot remember where that was supposed to have taken place. The explanation I was told was that the contract to build them (not surprisingly) required them to be delivered in airworthy condition and, upon delivery, if any were found to be unfit to fly, the Air Ministry was able to avoid paying for the airframe and could simply reject it. If the aircraft was deemed airworthy right away, it was considered 'paid for' and then (sadly) sent for scrap. Don't know for sure if that is true, but that is what I was told and it would seem to fit in with what you remember. As you say though, it doesn't explain why old ones were kept and new ones destroyed. Could it have been something to do with whatever mod state was required by the airline? Just a guess...
Ed
WHBM,
Excellent, thanks again!
Many years ago I heard a virtually identical story about brand new Halibags begin test-flown for the first time immediately before scrapping, though I cannot remember where that was supposed to have taken place. The explanation I was told was that the contract to build them (not surprisingly) required them to be delivered in airworthy condition and, upon delivery, if any were found to be unfit to fly, the Air Ministry was able to avoid paying for the airframe and could simply reject it. If the aircraft was deemed airworthy right away, it was considered 'paid for' and then (sadly) sent for scrap. Don't know for sure if that is true, but that is what I was told and it would seem to fit in with what you remember. As you say though, it doesn't explain why old ones were kept and new ones destroyed. Could it have been something to do with whatever mod state was required by the airline? Just a guess...
Ed
WHBM,
Excellent, thanks again!
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I think 'Off the Beam' by Donald Chandler (...Memoirs of an Aircraft Radio Operator) also covers the BSAA accident. Chandler tells of a career shift from maritime wireless operator pre-WW2 to aircraft radio maintainer and operator at Croydon etc, to Ferry Command in WW2 then to BSAA after the war...and other tales. 2nd Hand copies on Am***n
"Off the Beam" is by Robert Chandler - printed in 1969 but obtainable from AbeBooks or Amazon
Also another book not mentioned so far is by Archie Jackson "Can Anyone See Bermuda" with several chapters on BSAA.
Mike
Also another book not mentioned so far is by Archie Jackson "Can Anyone See Bermuda" with several chapters on BSAA.
Mike
Last edited by Mike6567; 9th Sep 2016 at 14:15. Reason: additional info
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Mike - so Archie J wrote two books, did he? 'Both Feet in the Air' and then 'Can Anyone See Bermuda'?
Rather surprising, esp as 'Both Feet in the Air' appeared to cover his time @ BSAA.
Rather surprising, esp as 'Both Feet in the Air' appeared to cover his time @ BSAA.
Yes Phoenix, Archie Jackson had a very interesting career with BSAA, BOAC and BA. He wrote "Both Feet in the Air" in 1976 about the time of his retirement and went on to write several other books including "Pathfinder Bennett" (1991).
"Can Anyone see Bermuda" - Memories of an Airline Pilot was published in 1997 and is complimentary to his earlier book.
Mike
"Can Anyone see Bermuda" - Memories of an Airline Pilot was published in 1997 and is complimentary to his earlier book.
Mike
This maybe of interest......http://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/0y4AAO...P6/s-l1600.jpg