Stansted Airport History and Nostalgia

[Sotonsean]

With the added weight of paint I think that goes without saying 🤔

[Musket90]

CP Air

Found a couple of photos taken at Gatwick.

[treadigraph]

Absolutely cracking scheme, really suited the DC-8, the 727 and the 747. Them was the days...

Is that a Seneca in the background of the 747, can't ever recall seeing light aircraft over on that side of the airfield.

[Herod]

Quite possible. The CAA instrument tests were conducted at Stansted. I did mine there in '76

[Sotonsean]

Originally Posted by treadigraph

Absolutely cracking scheme, really suited the DC-8, the 727 and the 747. Them was the days...

Is that a Seneca in the background of the 747, can't ever recall seeing light aircraft over on that side of the airfield.

It wasn't too unusual to see light aircraft over at the maintenance area at LGW, I remember seeing a few over the years for whatever reason, although very rare to say the least.

Not sure if you would actually class these as "light aircraft" but they we're once regular visitors to the BCAL maintenance area. British Caledonian Airways Executive Charter had two Piper pa31 Navajo Chieftain aircraft

G-CLAN and G-SCOT.

[treadigraph]

Just a thought, wasn't the Flight International Seneca yellow and originally based at Gatwick? Can't find a colour pic of it online from those days...

[Phileas Fogg]

Originally Posted by treadigraph

Absolutely cracking scheme, really suited the DC-8, the 727 and the 747. Them was the days...

Is that a Seneca in the background of the 747, can't ever recall seeing light aircraft over on that side of the airfield.

I recall that Winston Churchill (grandson of) would park his light a/c over at the Laker hangar

[treadigraph]

Ah yes, he had a Seneca in the 70s - think he moved on to a Cessna 425 later on. Thanks!

[Musket90]

One of G-CLAN

[ATNotts]

Has Stansted moved "sarf of the river" and been renamed Gatwick??

[treadigraph]

It was a weather diversion!

Back to Stansted, more pictures please!

[ATNotts]

Originally Posted by treadigraph

It was a weather diversion!

Back to Stansted, more pictures please!

I'll second that. It's an airport I rarely ventured to in my youth, only really started frequenting the place when Air Berlin operated daily services to Nürnberg and suited my needs for my fortnightly commute to Franconia, so missed the "interesting" era.

[treadigraph]

I first went there in 1975, taken by a kind family friend we were visiting in Bishop's Stortford. I think we only looked round the NW side near the old terminal, all I recall are the two THY 707s mentioned earlier, also Sheila Scott's Comanche taking off - owner was Max Coote by then. I wish I'd known about the fire dump with its several interesting carcasses, long gone by the time I had a proper visit, probably in the early 1980s!

[Musket90]

Looking through my Kodachrome photo slides another operator in the early to mid-80's was Denver Ports of Call with B707's. The one I have is N702PC.

[SpringHeeledJack]

I remember those! Didn't they have a 727 as well ? I'm sure I saw that either at Stansted or Gatwick. A private travel club of sorts wasn't it ?

[Sotonsean]

Originally Posted by Musket90

Looking through my Kodachrome photo slides another operator in the early to mid-80's was Denver Ports of Call with B707's. The one I have is N702PC.

Denver Ports of Call was a United States private airline which operated flights for the Denver-based Ports of Call Travel Club from 1967 to 1992. In it's heyday, Ports of Call was the largest travel club in the USA, with at one time over 66,000 members.

Ports of Call was established in 1966 as a travel club in Denver, Colorado. They initially used Douglas DC-7 and Lockheed L-188 Electra. Ports of Call grew to more modern aircraft such as the Convair 990, Boeing 707 and Boeing 727. By 1986 Ports of Call operated 11 Boeing 707-320, 1 Boeing 720 and a single Boeing 727-100.

In 1986 Ports of Call was rebranded as Skyworld Airlines.

In 1992 Skyworld Airlines ceased operations.

1994 Denver Ports of Call Travel Club closed down.

Denver Ports of Call operated to several airport's in the United Kingdom including Manchester, London Gatwick, London Stansted, Prestwick.

A few photos of Denver Ports of Call Boeing 707-320's at London Stansted Airport. Their aircraft were also serviced by ATEL at London Stansted Airport.






Denver Ports of Call rebranded into Skyworld Airlines.

The tail of an Air Mali Boeing 727-173C is visible. This particular aircraft TZ-ADR was once a regular visitor for maintenance with ATEL at London Stansted Airport.

The other aircraft that's just visible is the forward part of former Spantax DC8-61 TF-IHU at London Stansted Airport for storage after it's lease expired with the Spanish airline.

[Sotonsean]

Originally Posted by treadigraph

I first went there in 1975, taken by a kind family friend we were visiting in Bishop's Stortford. I think we only looked round the NW side near the old terminal, all I recall are the two THY 707s mentioned earlier, also Sheila Scott's Comanche taking off - owner was Max Coote by then. I wish I'd known about the fire dump with its several interesting carcasses, long gone by the time I had a proper visit, probably in the early 1980s!

The "old fire dump" at London Stansted Airport was very much in existence during the 1980's and it was always worth the trip round to the other side of the airport as there was always a selection of aircraft to be seen.

On my first visit to the fire dump in 1980 there was a few a Boeing 707's amongst other aircraft.

Here are a few photos of the former Italian company Aeropa Boeing 707's at the old fire dump at London Stansted Airport. These older Boeing 707's had the Pratt & Whitney JT3C turbojet (drain pipe style) engine's.

During the early to mid 1980's several former Turkish THY Airlines Boeing 707-320's we're stored at London Stansted Airport, some by the ATEL hangars and a couple over at the old fire dump. These aircraft were later sold to the USAF and flown to the USA where they were stripped for spare parts.





The final photo also show's one of the Turkish THY Airlines stored Boeing 707's and in the distance the remains of a former Channel Airways Viscount-800.

[Sotonsean]

So far on the Stansted Airport History and Nostalgia thread we have discussed,

Canadian charters
Channel Airways operations
Charter flights during the eighties
Former Scheduled cargo airline's
Scandinavian visitors
US affinity charters

And various other topics.

I thought that I would make a list of all of the international flag carriers that have previously operated full scheduled passenger service's from London Stansted Airport over the years right up until the present day.

Adria.. Ljubljana
Aer Lingus.. Dublin
Aeroflot..St Petersburg
Air France.. Paris CDG
Air Lituanica.. Vilnius
Air Malta..Malta
Albanian Airlines.. Tirana
Alitalia.. Milan MXP
Atlantic Airways..Vagar
Croatian Airlines.. Dubrovnik
CSA Czech Airlines.. Prague
Cubana.. Havana
Cyprus Airways..Larnaca/Paphos
EL AL..Tel Aviv..
KLM.. Amsterdam..(as KLM uk).. Eindhoven/Maastricht (as KLM Excel)
​​​​​Lufthansa.. Frankfurt/Munich
Luxair.. Luxembourg
Montenegro Airlines.. Podgorica
Malev.. Budapest
PIA Pakistan International Airlines.. Islamabad
Royal Air Maroc.. Marrakesh
SAS Scandinavian Airlines.. Gothenburg/Stockholm ARN..(Copenhagen/Oslo both current)
Swiss.. Zurich
TACV Cabo Verde Airlines..Sal
Tarom.. Bucharest
Turkish Airlines.. Istanbul Ataturk

EL AL previously operated from London Stansted and were set to return in June 2020, due to the current situation I don't envisage this happening so I have added the airline to the list.

[dc9-32]

Ports of Call 707's used to also frequent MAEL at LTN for checks.

[Sotonsean]

Originally Posted by dc9-32

Ports of Call 707's used to also frequent MAEL at LTN for checks.

I personally didn't feel the need to add that information to the Stansted Airport History and Nostalgia thread considering that the discussion was referring to Denver Ports of Call and their visits to London Stansted Airport 🤔