Avro Lancastrian Tales

[avionic type]

Mike, the Goddess was sitting in a seat for the Co Pilot that hung on a pivot on the side of the "Cockpit "/ Flight deck wall it could be lowered to allow the Navigator to get to his office in the nose section the flight controls were joined by a control bar from yoke to yoke , rudder peddles were joined under the floor,
If the Lady is any relation to you please forgive me all stewardesses were goddesses to me at my callow youth stage of the teens

[AirportsEd]

gs - I am sure you will enjoy it. Having received lots of TLC from the Duxford Aviation Society she is in great condition.
Visitors can step inside the fuselage on most weekends (and, I think, school holidays) as DAS often has a volunteer on duty to answer visitor's questions.
Ed

[Phoenix1969]

(not quite, evidently) last post from me on this - thanks a lot, Mike - the people pics really bring it alive!

The Lancastrian, as with all conveyances whether wheeled, winged or floating, was/is primarily a human thing, giving rise to experiences and meetings that wouldn't have happened without it.

Avionic Type - have you heard what some of the BSAA Stargirls used to get up to?!

[AirportsEd]

BA Museum Visit

Hello planemike,
Just wanted to say thank you for the suggestion that I should visit the BA museum and speak to Keith. I have had that pleasure now. He has many fascinating stories and recalls them as if they were yesterday...
Ed

[avionic type]

Phoenix 1969 ,as a young lad my contact with Glamorous Stewardesses was virtually nil, as they were private school, Swiss finishing, Debs,photos in THE TATLER in twin set and pearls, they were well above MY station in life AND DEFINATLY Captain /aircrew fodder, only though talking to ex stewardesses of the 60s and beyond I believe Lovely times were the order of the day on a "stop over 5 day Slip on a far eastern island " now alas gone with long range A/C they are lumbered with the flying Wendy House which is 1 step up from the back row 4 seats in economy .
As for BSSA girls as I was BOAC I never saw one Sorry

[Planemike]

AirportsEd.... Have PM'd you.

[AirportsEd]

With regards to BSAA's Star Girls, I believe the airline's first had been an ATA pilot who, after doing a few trips, including the inaugural, decided to leave the company and return to some kind of pilot work. Don't know who she went to work for though. The ATA had stood down by then.

Thanks for the message Planemike.

[WHBM]

Richard Branson's mum is probably the best known former BSAA Stargirl. Her autobiography front cover has her standing in front of a Lancastrian (which I believe is an actual BSAA publicity photo, not a composite, as I saw it years ago the same.


https://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgu...act=mrc&uact=8

[AirportsEd]

Mum's the Word

Thanks WHBM, I never knew that!
Another book to read!
Ed

[AirportsEd]

I have been trying to find out the date of the very last Avro Lancastrian flight.
Wikipedia says 1960, which sounds rather late to me, but perhaps that was one of the engine test bed airframes.
Does anyone know when the last commercial Lancastrian flight was?

[WHBM]

According to my notes the last Lancastrians were withdrawn in 1951. BOAC had a few which just lasted until early that year, while the last user of all seems to be Flight Refuelling, whose fleet of them finished in the autumn. Both doubtless just for freight at the time, the FR ones as aerial tankers.

[Planemike]

The time frame given by WHBM seems to fit in with the information I have gleaned. I have checked AJJ's Avro book and also BCA Vol 1. VM733 was still flying at Bitteswell in June 54. This was a test bed for a pair of Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire engines: airframe converted by AST Hamble January 1950. Also shown in the Avro book is a photograph of T-102 of the Argentine Air Force. The photograph was taken on 24 May 1960. The aircraft appears to be airworthy/operational. So Wikipedia may well be correct.

[AirportsEd]

Many thanks WHBM and Planemike.
I hadn't thought about the Argentinian aircraft as I was focused upon airline operations.
Details of the last passenger service are certainly elusive!
Ed

[WHBM]

Also shown in the Avro book is a photograph of T-102 of the Argentine Air Force. The photograph was taken on 24 May 1960. The aircraft appears to be airworthy/operational.

Moot point whether this was a Lancastrian. Another Lancastrian, RAF TX289, new 1946, was sold in 1947 to Argentinian airline of the times FAMA (who also bought Shorts flying boats at the same time), they ran it for a year, then sold it to the Air Force, who used it for a couple of years as their T-65 (T=Transport) until 1950 when it was withdrawn with corrosion. It then seems to have sat around until 1958 when the "Lancastrian mods" were taken off it (presumably they weren't the corroded parts) and applied to Argentinian Air Force Lancaster B-045 (B=Bomber) which was ex-RAF Lanc RA378 sold in 1949. It was renumbered T-102, and crashed on 11 December 1960 with 31 fatalities. Seems a lot of fatalities for a Lancastrian lost en route, unless there were some on the ground.

ASN Aircraft accident Avro Lancaster B.1 T-102 San Andrés de Giles, BA

[AirportsEd]

Yes, supposedly 23 passengers and 8 crew. It must have been very cramped.
Thanks,
Ed

[Shackman]

Janitrol Heater - same system as we had on the Shackleton (but was it still called that).

[avionic type]

Thank goodness their flying lives were short like the Halifax /Halton they were wildly expensive to fly and let's face were meant to be bombers, hoisted onto the airlines as there were no Dollars to buy commercial aircraft from America our aircraft industry were still suffering from lack of funding , and trying to go over to civilian planes even the Viking was a Wellington shape with a stressed ally body with fabric wings until the mark 1a was developed but a lot of it was Wimpy even that had the spar running through the cabin , the up side was business men used to scramble to certain seats to catch a glimpse of a stocking top plus suspender as the stewardess stepped over them . Sorry about the Drift back to the fatalities, wrong aircraft ,lack of flying aids ,poor autopilot only good for straight and level, increase of pilot fatigue, bad weather.

[avionic type]

Shackman were you on 1,2,or 3sI was on 1s at Gibraltar, perhaps we had better start a new thread.

[AirportsEd]

Hello avionic type.
Can you remember if spares were in short supply when you worked on BOAC Lancastrians? I was told it was a significant issue for BSAA.
Ed

[Herod]

Viking was a Wellington shape with a stressed ally body

I used to tell my young FOs that I had flown the Varsity. "What's a Varsity?"

"It's an aluminium-skinned Wellington with a nosewheel" "What's a Wellington?"

You can't get the wood these days, you know.