BEA and Northeast Viscount 800s
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Many of us know that Northeast was a subsidiary of BEA via the British Air Services holding company. Did the two airlines operate on each other's services at any time ? The reason I ask is I recently saw some old film from Leeds Bradford Airport circa 1971. It features a Northeast Viscount starting and taxiing and throughout there are shots of a BEA Viscount - still in red square livery - parked on about stand 5. The only BEA-liveried Viscounts I remember at LBA were in the Speedjack colours during 1976, operating BA flights while the ex-Northeasts were being resprayed for about the fourth time!
Thankyou.
Thankyou.
Being a huge BCAL fan I should have known otherwise and put more effort in explaining the takeover rather than the merger.
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Amazing how one question can provoke such a range of responses; I am grateful for them all.
The film is on Twitter, posted by Captain Brent@Birdseed501. It claims to be 1972. I say 1971 but, either way, I'm not old enough to remember.
It's off-topic but Channel Airways (the mixed-fleet outfit, not BEA Channel Islands Division) DID operate schedules through Leeds Bradford, namely the Scottish Flyer service, circa 1969/1970.
I'm meeting an ex-LBA ATC chum later this month. I must remember to ask him about this subject.
The film is on Twitter, posted by Captain Brent@Birdseed501. It claims to be 1972. I say 1971 but, either way, I'm not old enough to remember.
It's off-topic but Channel Airways (the mixed-fleet outfit, not BEA Channel Islands Division) DID operate schedules through Leeds Bradford, namely the Scottish Flyer service, circa 1969/1970.
I'm meeting an ex-LBA ATC chum later this month. I must remember to ask him about this subject.
Morse light beacons were common on aerodromes well after the sixties. LHR had something on the SW extremity as late as 78.
How far back to four letter ICAO codes go?
East Midlands IATA designator was CDD as late as 1975.
Air Banda
The LHR beacon, which was very large and flashed I think LN in morse was more S than SW at LHR , and its location is easily identified today from the junction of Beacon Road and the Southern Perimeter Road .
Its very bright green glow was reflected of lower clouds and lit up the skies east of Stanwell where I grew up. Always referred to locally just as 'the flashing beacon' it is extra ordinary it went on so long into the days of CAT III ILS and autolands.
Sadly very little left at at all from the LHR of the 60s which I suppose is the fate of most airports. New Tower , four less runways, T4 T5 .away from central area, BEA base , in some ways its a miracle that they have been able to chnage so much without expanding the airports footprint at all , even the western runway extensions were as far as I know still within the original boundaries. Yet less than a mile down the road from the perimeter to Stanwell village the church with tis less than straight spire has watched over it all for close on 900 years and even closer to the airport the original village school will be 400 years old in two years time what on earth would the builders have thought of what happened to the fields north of the village.
The LHR beacon, which was very large and flashed I think LN in morse was more S than SW at LHR , and its location is easily identified today from the junction of Beacon Road and the Southern Perimeter Road .
Its very bright green glow was reflected of lower clouds and lit up the skies east of Stanwell where I grew up. Always referred to locally just as 'the flashing beacon' it is extra ordinary it went on so long into the days of CAT III ILS and autolands.
Sadly very little left at at all from the LHR of the 60s which I suppose is the fate of most airports. New Tower , four less runways, T4 T5 .away from central area, BEA base , in some ways its a miracle that they have been able to chnage so much without expanding the airports footprint at all , even the western runway extensions were as far as I know still within the original boundaries. Yet less than a mile down the road from the perimeter to Stanwell village the church with tis less than straight spire has watched over it all for close on 900 years and even closer to the airport the original village school will be 400 years old in two years time what on earth would the builders have thought of what happened to the fields north of the village.
I think that treadigraph got it right when he stated that chevvron had used YD illustratively rather than as an exact example. I don’t think that there was any real suggestion of an actual link between G-AVYD & Channel Airways, Dave.
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All this YD business is fascinating but it doesn't answer the original question! However, it would appear from the various responses that the BEA Viscount in question was either a diversion or on a Channel Islands rotation. If there is a third explanation (or more), we haven't heard it yet.
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All this YD business is fascinating but it doesn't answer the original question! However, it would appear from the various responses that the BEA Viscount in question was either a diversion or on a Channel Islands rotation. If there is a third explanation (or more), we haven't heard it yet.
I have also perused some Yorkshire Air Magazines I stumbled across online looking at LBA movements in summer ‘71. There was no mention of the VC-10 movement which appeared to be XR808. Annoyingly, the only reference I could find to BEA Viscounts movements at LBA that summer was in September ‘71. G-AOJC visited on 14/9, G-AOHW on 16/9, G-AOJB on 21/9 and ‘JB again on 23/9. These were all well out of BEA Red Square livery by this time. I did wonder whether these might have been Channel Islands, Belfast or Dublin movements as they were all Tuesdays or Thursdays. Unfortunately, I do not have a Northeast timetable for ‘71 to hand to see what the aircraft rotations were and whether that might be why G-APIM was there. However, there also looks to be part of the film from inside a Viscount parked where G-APIM was. Was this the usual LHR stand being close to the terminal? I have come to the conclusion that G-APIM was probably on the Heathrow service and that the film company were from London and filmed the Viscount’s engines after start-up from inside the aircraft on their return to London. Perhaps Northeast were short of a Viscount for the whole or part of that summer and borrowed one from BEA. All speculation of course on my part, of course.
Anyway, this helps what I found to be an fascinating thread.
I believe it did. Channel ordered it, one of their five Tridents, frame numbers 2135-9, registration allocations G-AVYA to E. At some stage before delivery they didn't have the funds, and only took two, 'YB and 'YE. Air Ceylon took 'YA, which never wore UK marks and went straight onto the Ceylon register. BKS then took 'YC and 'YD, and as the frames had already been allocated UK marks, that was what they got. When Channel went under their two came to Northeast as well
Getting the one that spent the last year of Channel's existence being stripped for spares at Stansted to keep the other going, when Hawker Siddeley put Channel on 'cash with order', must have been an interesting job. Ostensibly it went to BEA first, for 18 months, but I wonder if it ever actually ran a BEA flight (being a unique 1E model there), that being just the time the BEA engineers took to make it airworthy again.
Getting the one that spent the last year of Channel's existence being stripped for spares at Stansted to keep the other going, when Hawker Siddeley put Channel on 'cash with order', must have been an interesting job. Ostensibly it went to BEA first, for 18 months, but I wonder if it ever actually ran a BEA flight (being a unique 1E model there), that being just the time the BEA engineers took to make it airworthy again.
I believe it did. Channel ordered it, one of their five Tridents, frame numbers 2135-9, registration allocations G-AVYA to E. At some stage before delivery they didn't have the funds, and only took two, 'YB and 'YE. Air Ceylon took 'YA, which never wore UK marks and went straight onto the Ceylon register. BKS then took 'YC and 'YD, and as the frames had already been allocated UK marks, that was what they got. When Channel went under their two came to Northeast as well
Getting the one that spent the last year of Channel's existence being stripped for spares at Stansted to keep the other going, when Hawker Siddeley put Channel on 'cash with order', must have been an interesting job. Ostensibly it went to BEA first, for 18 months, but I wonder if it ever actually ran a BEA flight (being a unique 1E model there), that being just the time the BEA engineers took to make it airworthy again.
Getting the one that spent the last year of Channel's existence being stripped for spares at Stansted to keep the other going, when Hawker Siddeley put Channel on 'cash with order', must have been an interesting job. Ostensibly it went to BEA first, for 18 months, but I wonder if it ever actually ran a BEA flight (being a unique 1E model there), that being just the time the BEA engineers took to make it airworthy again.
Probably either Trident 2 G-AVFA or Trident 3 G-AWZA, both BA.
I'd flown out to Gib that day in GAVZL a T3.
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Mooncrest, I have completed some research on the BEA Viscount. I am 99% certain it is G-APIM. This appears to have been the only BEA Viscount in summer 1971 that was not in the Speedjack colour scheme or had already been passed onto Northeast or Cambrian. I have based this on examination of a large number of BEA pictures from the late 60’s and early 70’s dotted around the internet. If you freeze frame the video, it also very much looks like a G-APXX registration rather than a G-AOXX one. G-APEX was out of Red Square livery by May ‘70 and G-APEY by June ‘69. G-APIM itself appears to have passed to Cambrian Airways on 3rd November 1971. It may well have owed the fact it was the last one in Red Square livery due to being stored at Marshall’s of Cambridge between February and November 1969 at a time when repaints into Speedjack livery were well underway.
I have also perused some Yorkshire Air Magazines I stumbled across online looking at LBA movements in summer ‘71. There was no mention of the VC-10 movement which appeared to be XR808. Annoyingly, the only reference I could find to BEA Viscounts movements at LBA that summer was in September ‘71. G-AOJC visited on 14/9, G-AOHW on 16/9, G-AOJB on 21/9 and ‘JB again on 23/9. These were all well out of BEA Red Square livery by this time. I did wonder whether these might have been Channel Islands, Belfast or Dublin movements as they were all Tuesdays or Thursdays. Unfortunately, I do not have a Northeast timetable for ‘71 to hand to see what the aircraft rotations were and whether that might be why G-APIM was there. However, there also looks to be part of the film from inside a Viscount parked where G-APIM was. Was this the usual LHR stand being close to the terminal? I have come to the conclusion that G-APIM was probably on the Heathrow service and that the film company were from London and filmed the Viscount’s engines after start-up from inside the aircraft on their return to London. Perhaps Northeast were short of a Viscount for the whole or part of that summer and borrowed one from BEA. All speculation of course on my part, of course.
Anyway, this helps what I found to be an fascinating thread.
I have also perused some Yorkshire Air Magazines I stumbled across online looking at LBA movements in summer ‘71. There was no mention of the VC-10 movement which appeared to be XR808. Annoyingly, the only reference I could find to BEA Viscounts movements at LBA that summer was in September ‘71. G-AOJC visited on 14/9, G-AOHW on 16/9, G-AOJB on 21/9 and ‘JB again on 23/9. These were all well out of BEA Red Square livery by this time. I did wonder whether these might have been Channel Islands, Belfast or Dublin movements as they were all Tuesdays or Thursdays. Unfortunately, I do not have a Northeast timetable for ‘71 to hand to see what the aircraft rotations were and whether that might be why G-APIM was there. However, there also looks to be part of the film from inside a Viscount parked where G-APIM was. Was this the usual LHR stand being close to the terminal? I have come to the conclusion that G-APIM was probably on the Heathrow service and that the film company were from London and filmed the Viscount’s engines after start-up from inside the aircraft on their return to London. Perhaps Northeast were short of a Viscount for the whole or part of that summer and borrowed one from BEA. All speculation of course on my part, of course.
Anyway, this helps what I found to be an fascinating thread.
I suppose another possibility is the BEA was doing a charter, either to the Dutch bulbfields or perhaps to Lourdes.
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As an aside, where did the heavy maintenance for the Cambrian and Northeast Viscounts take place ? Cambrian had a hangar at Cardiff whilst Northeast's was at Leeds Bradford. I imagine each company was responsible for its own fleet but there could have been potential for crossing over, IYSWIM.
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