What are these aircraft?
Gnome de PPRuNe
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Top one, Handley Page Halton, middle is a Lockheed Lodestar I think.
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I agree that the middle one is a Lockheed Lodestar or as called by the British (who used a lot of them), the Lockheed Hudson. The bottom aircraft is an Avro York.
Cheers,
Grog
Cheers,
Grog
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The BOAC Lodestar named "Lake Kivu" was G-AGCU, Served from 1941 to 1947. Ex NC34900, 42-53499, RAF AX720. Returned to the RAF. More on http://www.joebaugher.com/usaf_serials/1942_3.html
Nice pictures!
Laurence
Nice pictures!
Laurence
Last edited by l.garey; 4th Jul 2020 at 14:34.
The Halton at top appears to have LAMS (London Aero and Motor Services) titles and the name is most likely "Port of London", making it G-AHZO. It was registered to this company from July 1946 to December 1948.
I agree that the middle one is a Lockheed Lodestar or as called by the British (who used a lot of them), the Lockheed Hudson.
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Those are indeed nice pictures. I suspect they were taken by a professional, since they seem to have been made with a very large camera: the depth of field is extremely narrow, especially considering how bright the light must have been, allowing a small lens aperture.
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Sorry, wasn't clear. Bright light, so probably did use a small aperture (f/11, maybe, probably not wider than f/8). On a smallish camera (Rollei down), that would mean a big depth of field. But these pictures have a shallow depth of field, so they must have been taken on a large camera (5x4, probably), with which size you'd get a shallow depth of field even with a small aperture. Hence, professional (in the '40s, they'd still be using such big cameras). Alternatively, someone using an aerial camera: they made big negatives, and did have fast lenses (though I don't know what speed film they used).
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Although the Hudson and the Ventura are superficially similar and had the same wingspan, the Ventura was a larger and heavier aircraft. The engines were 2000 HP P&W R-2800s versus 1100 HP Wright Cyclones in the Hudson. The Ventura had a gross weight of 31,000 lb versus the Hudson's 17,500 lb.
Some thread drift coming up...... East African Airways was an extensive user of Lockheed Lodestars, the first five of which came from parent company BOAC. In total they operated 15 aircraft. Others were sourced from the Congo & South Africa (ex SAA).
Last edited by Planemike; 28th Nov 2021 at 14:01.
I suspect the photos were taken at Cairo. This was a hub for BOAC second only to London, from where services fanned out southwards into Africa and eastwards into Asia. Looking at a 1947 BOAC timetable there are 22 York departures a week, 8 "Lockheeds" (that's what BOAC called them), 6 DC3 and 3 of their own Haltons. Besides these landplanes, BOAC flying boats were landing alongside on the Nile, adding another 14 services per week in all these directions as well. It remained a transfer point for BOAC passengers travelling between Africa and Asia right up to British Airways times in the 1970s. Besides the services from London turning back there, which appear to have spent commonly a couple of days on the turnaround, there were spare aircraft and crews based there as well. Crews typically flew all day through multiple stops, then had several days off.
The LAMS Halton was part of a large fleet of a dozen or more, wholly cargo, based at Stansted, which found much commercial ad-hoc cargo work, to the self-same areas and down to Australia; they were one of the largest such UK operators at the time. A Halton was a loosely-civilianised Handley Page Halifax bomber; can't mention the Halifax without stating that Mr WHBM Senior was a WW2 navigator on them
. The post-war adapted types, as all of them here, were generally the very last production just in mid-1945 before the wartime output was closed down, and had often not seen active service.
Looks like dad is in RAF uniform (no concession to the heat it seems), who would have added much to the movements there. Note the photos are all of civvy types though.
In passing, looking up LAMS just now, I see they employed a European salesman in 1946-7 who travelled to find business for them, engaged as he OWNED HIS OWN SPITFIRE for getting around ! Oh, happy days !
The LAMS Halton was part of a large fleet of a dozen or more, wholly cargo, based at Stansted, which found much commercial ad-hoc cargo work, to the self-same areas and down to Australia; they were one of the largest such UK operators at the time. A Halton was a loosely-civilianised Handley Page Halifax bomber; can't mention the Halifax without stating that Mr WHBM Senior was a WW2 navigator on them
. The post-war adapted types, as all of them here, were generally the very last production just in mid-1945 before the wartime output was closed down, and had often not seen active service.Looks like dad is in RAF uniform (no concession to the heat it seems), who would have added much to the movements there. Note the photos are all of civvy types though.
In passing, looking up LAMS just now, I see they employed a European salesman in 1946-7 who travelled to find business for them, engaged as he OWNED HIS OWN SPITFIRE for getting around ! Oh, happy days !
