Dating Late 1940 BOAC Photos

[Fogg]

Hi all,

Searching and researching old photos for AirHistory.net, I came across shots from Nigeria from a man named Edward Duckworth, now digitized by the Northwestern University Libraries in Illinois. They include these photos of RAF Valentia aircraft and Imperial Airways DH.86 Express aircraft made at the short-lived Apapa airport in Lagos before WWII.

Now I'm inquiring about this BOAC Dakota, G-AGHP. It wears a colourful BOAC Speedbird nose logo with the word Speedbird which seems to have been short-lived. A couple of Avro Tudors seem to have worn this in 1947-48, and the first BOAC Stratocruiser(s) in 1949. Given what I could find of the service history of G-AGHP, it seems that it was based in Britain around 1947, and it seems strange to find it in Lagos.

Does anyone know when this logo was introduced, or know about the use of BOAC Dakotas in West Africa or the run to Khartoum in the late 1940s?

Regards
Peter

[Quemerford]

IIRC the Speedbird was a carry-over from Imperial Airways so I'm not sure that alone can be used for dating. However it's likely that the colour scheme might be helpful. That photo looks like it might have been some kind of official visit: maybe that's an option too?

[Fogg]

Yes, I'm talking about the colour scheme, with this specific version of the logo, with the word Speedbird below. I don't think this was used during the war.

The flight seems to be a cargo flight, although there is a seat for one VIP passenger
https://dc.library.northwestern.edu/...c-3595f31c24e9

[OUAQUKGF Ops]

That was a good find Fogg . I did wonder if it might have had something to do with the new Governor of Nigeria Sir John Macpherson taking up his position there in 1948. However I thought that the scheduled BOAC York Speedbird service would possibly have been more appropriate.

[OUAQUKGF Ops]

More images of G-AGHP thanks to Fogg on this page and following pages. (No sign of The Guvnor but perhaps a Tribal Chief) https://dc.library.northwestern.edu/...airport&page=3

[treadigraph]

Slightly similar to the bars that underlined the civil registrations of BOAC's camouflaged wartime fleet, thinking of the Mossies on the ball bearing runs - not sure if they painted other types thus.

[renfrew]

Dakotas operated the UK-Lagos service until July 1947 until replaced by Haltons and then Yorks.

[Fogg]

Thanks Renfrew, I added that to the caption.

[bean]

Originally Posted by treadigraph

Slightly similar to the bars that underlined the civil registrations of BOAC's camouflaged wartime fleet, thinking of the Mossies on the ball bearing runs - not sure if they painted other types thus.

They did paint other types the same as mossies

[WHBM]

The Speedbird logo dates from the early 1930s. The commissioned artist, who also devised the name, for Imperial Airways was Theo Lee-Elliott, onetime British table tennis champion (!) who later ran an art studio and did many 1920s-30s art nouveau corporate images. It ran right through to current times in the various incarnations of Imperial, BOAC and British Airways, still being of course the BA callsign. The design still appears in various places, one which will be difficult to remove is that incorporated in the mosaic murals on the station platforms of the London Underground extension to Heathrow, done in the 1970s.

G-AGHP was built 1943, and quickly passed in a few months through the USAF and RAF to BOAC. Understand that the latter in wartime was virtually just an arm of the military. DC3s were used quite extensively, especially immediately after 1945, for some quite long haul flights, from the UK to Africa and the Middle East, as well as BOAC's extensive routes within and between points in those continents - there were still various UK colonies there, and no other carrier to do them anyway. Cairo was a significant BOAC hub.

Here on line is the 1947 BOAC DC3 (always known as the Dakota in the UK) timetable for the thrice-weekly service from London to Lagos. It took three days, overnighting at Lisbon, Bathurst and Accra. Lots of Speedbird logos around the page !

ba47-06.jpg (1091×1292) (timetableimages.com)

AGHP was sold in 1947 to Hong Kong Airways, which BOAC part-owned, but was badly damaged before delivery, must have been near to a write-off, but was repaired, and then transferred to the new BEA. Reduced to cargo, it crashed, breaking up midair in a storm near Paris in 1958 while carrying a Formula 1 racing car to the Monaco Grand Prix, Description of the loss, from the racing team's perspective, is here

Plane crash comment by Tony Brooks - TNF's Archive - The Autosport Forums

[Fogg]

Thank you WHBM, I've added some of your details to the caption of the picture.
Of course KLM bought the DC-3 for the East Indies route. I had just expected the British to have enough long-range aircraft by 1945.

[WHBM]

Originally Posted by Fogg

Thank you WHBM, I've added some of your details to the caption of the picture.
Of course KLM bought the DC-3 for the East Indies route. I had just expected the British to have enough long-range aircraft by 1945.

There really weren't any "long range" airliners before 1945. Bear in mind that on the main "Empire" routes, from Britain to Africa or even across Asia to Australia, it is quite possible to fly the entire distance without really losing sight of land, so short hops were all that were required. The challenge was of course crossing the Atlantic, for which BOAC were allowed a very limited amount of US Dollars to buy Lockheed Constellations. There were some converted WW2 bombers, the Lancastrian, being an adapted Lancaster bomber, which did rapid long-hop services to Australia, but principally for mail, and a very few passengers, as the fuselage space was so limited. All else stopped every 500-800 miles or so, for which a DC3 was fine, besides which by 1945 there was a huge amount of engineering expertise on it spread around the world.

It was exacerbated by the first British attempts at longer range aircraft, such as the Tudor and the Brabazon, being fiascos.

[possel]

Originally Posted by WHBM

<snip> There were some converted WW2 bombers, the Lancastrian, being an adapted Lancaster bomber, which did rapid long-hop services to Australia, but principally for mail, and a very few passengers, as the fuselage space was so limited. <snip>

In 1997 I took an elderly neighbour flying in a Beagle Pup. She must have been 85 or more, and she told me that after the war she and her husband (UK forces) had flown back from the Far East in a Lancastrian - it was either from Hong Kong or Malaysia. It was a long arduous trip (I forget exactly the details) and my respect for her rose considerably!

[WHBM]

Originally Posted by possel

In 1997 I took an elderly neighbour flying in a Beagle Pup. She must have been 85 or more, and she told me that after the war she and her husband (UK forces) had flown back from the Far East in a Lancastrian - it was either from Hong Kong or Malaysia. It was a long arduous trip (I forget exactly the details) and my respect for her rose considerably!

You had to be quite someone in the forces to qualify for the Lancastrian high speed/long sectors flight; I think it had 13 seats. From Singapore at 0830 on a Wednesday morning, it was into London at o700 on Friday, which included a brief, 10-hour "nightstop" at Karachi. Going the other way there was no stopover all the way from London to Australia - the service was aimed principally at airmails. This was in contrast to the more capacious Shorts flying boat, which took over a week to get to Australia (and the ship, which took well over a month). The timetables of both are here :

ba47-05.jpg (1086×1289) (timetableimages.com).

[Fogg]

There really weren't any "long range" airliners before 1945. Bear in mind that on the main "Empire" routes, from Britain to Africa or even across Asia to Australia, it is quite possible to fly the entire distance without really losing sight of land, so short hops were all that were required

I was puzzled by this awkward Short Empire landing site on the Saône river, and was told that the S-23 couldn't even make it from Portsmouth to Marseille with headwind...