Holiday Props
Maybe off-thread, but I remember as a small boy in the early 1960s seeing Avro Yorks at Heathrow, in the glorious days when you could see the aeroplanes parked near the southern side of the airport where the cargo centre is now. I believe these were Skyways airline passenger aircraft, or maybe used for cargo. They were painted in a pale green/grey, maroon and silver scheme as I recall. I also remember the Air Canada DC-8 (or maybe Convair Coronado) which over- or undershot and ended up in a cabbage field south of the airport. There was also a regular flight by a Breguet Deux Ponts out of Heathrow , probably still into the early 1970s - that was a sight to behold; was it passenger or cargo?
Maybe off-thread, but I remember as a small boy in the early 1960s seeing Avro Yorks at Heathrow, in the glorious days when you could see the aeroplanes parked near the southern side of the airport where the cargo centre is now. I believe these were Skyways airline passenger aircraft, or maybe used for cargo. They were painted in a pale green/grey, maroon and silver scheme as I recall. I also remember the Air Canada DC-8 (or maybe Convair Coronado) which over- or undershot and ended up in a cabbage field south of the airport. There was also a regular flight by a Breguet Deux Ponts out of Heathrow , probably still into the early 1970s - that was a sight to behold; was it passenger or cargo?
The Breguet Deux Ponts (alias the "Duck's Pants"
) was used latterly mainly for cargo, but did have some passenger seats left in on the upper deck. It did a nightly freighter run from and to Paris in the small hours, and various daytime runs there as well. In about 1968 it was still running a passenger/cargo service on odd evenings from Bristol Lulsgate to Paris - as you drove out on the A38 road from Bristol it would be prominent on the skyline when on the ramp. It was a big aircraft for 4 x R-2800 engines and the 1 a.m. MTOW departure at full bore and gradual climb was well known for waking up the residents around Heathrow.
Gnome de PPRuNe
Join Date: Jan 2002
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Final Deux Ponts service from Heathrow 31st March 1971 - another five years and I would have enjoyed hearing them overflying my school on the way back to Paris - another two years and I'd have heard them inbound assuming they routed via Biggin. Damn!
Used to hear the weekly Northolt Noratlas overfly the school on Tuesday afternoons on its way back to somewhere, Evreux?
Used to hear the weekly Northolt Noratlas overfly the school on Tuesday afternoons on its way back to somewhere, Evreux?
Had completely forgotten about the Deux Ponts at Heathrow. Way back in the 1960s used to walk the dog with my uncle between the two rivers on the south side and remember seeing DC3s and C46s. Also remember one day being on the roof of the Queens Building when Lancaster G-ASXX landed and taxied up to a gate just below me.
Final Deux Ponts service from Heathrow 31st March 1971 - another five years and I would have enjoyed hearing them overflying my school on the way back to Paris - another two years and I'd have heard them inbound assuming they routed via Biggin. Damn!
Used to hear the weekly Northolt Noratlas overfly the school on Tuesday afternoons on its way back to somewhere, Evreux?
Used to hear the weekly Northolt Noratlas overfly the school on Tuesday afternoons on its way back to somewhere, Evreux?
The only active Noratlas I recall was at a Coventry airshow around 2000. It had been parked tail-on to the commentators' position. When it fired up for its turn late in the show it blew all the loose items, and some not so loose, right out of the commentary box
Gnome de PPRuNe
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Too close to Croydon for comfort
Age: 60
Posts: 12,618
Received 293 Likes
on
161 Posts
The PDF were usually accompanied by a Noratlas as I rec all.
