Breguet Deux-Ponts at Evreux
Also thnaks for posting the pics and video. Oddly while I can quite vividly remember the Deux Pont s at LHR in the mid 60s I can not recall ever seeing one land so the video was very special
Many accounts of seeing the "Duck's Pants" at Heathrow, where it appears to have made a somewhat random range of freight operations, from noisy scarcely-climbing full power departures in the middle of the night, to photos of it there in broad daylight. But the one I saw was at Bristol Lulsgate. 1968 I think, and I had got hold of an Air France timetable which in an obscure corner showed a couple of late afternoon flights a week from Bristol to Paris by a type "Breg". Not knowing what it was, my curiosity took me out on the local bus at the stipulated time, and there it was, highlighted on the skyline. The only apparent passenger for it appeared to be an elegant young French au-pair, also on the bus; the terminal was otherwise deserted, but a walk round the outside gave a sudden unimpeded view of the ramp, and there it was. Shame I couldn't stay to see it go. Apparently it used to bring various freight consignments from France to BAC at Bristol, which would be trucked over to Filton, so may have contributed in a very minor way to the Concorde programme.
Initially a true double decker, and used from the mid-1950s on operations from France to Algeria, it was fairly early converted to a Combi. Someone can advise which floor had the freight, and which the apparently small number of remaining seats. It was then used mostly as a freighter, but a few operations for passengers like this Bristol one remained. I believe 12 were built for Air France, and another four for the air force, including the one described above at Evreux. In usual French fashion they seem to have used a range of model numbers and names for it. Half the Air France fleet were converted to those Combis, lasting I think to around 1971, and the others were passed on to the air force to join their brethren there from new. Several of the air force ones were sent to the South Pacific, to support the French nuclear test sites there out of Tahiti; I think they were abandoned there. The ferry out must have been interesting.
The engines were Pratts, four R-2800s like a DC-6, though performance was way worse, it must have had considerable drag. But it never seems to have had an accident.
Initially a true double decker, and used from the mid-1950s on operations from France to Algeria, it was fairly early converted to a Combi. Someone can advise which floor had the freight, and which the apparently small number of remaining seats. It was then used mostly as a freighter, but a few operations for passengers like this Bristol one remained. I believe 12 were built for Air France, and another four for the air force, including the one described above at Evreux. In usual French fashion they seem to have used a range of model numbers and names for it. Half the Air France fleet were converted to those Combis, lasting I think to around 1971, and the others were passed on to the air force to join their brethren there from new. Several of the air force ones were sent to the South Pacific, to support the French nuclear test sites there out of Tahiti; I think they were abandoned there. The ferry out must have been interesting.
The engines were Pratts, four R-2800s like a DC-6, though performance was way worse, it must have had considerable drag. But it never seems to have had an accident.
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Can't say I've ever seen one though must have come within a sniff of the two near Paris. Thought there was one at Le Bourget when I first visited in 1987 but it seems not...
