PPRuNe Forums - BOAC Handley Page Hermes to Lagos trip report 1951

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Is it not a Morris Ten rather than a Morris Eight?

Airclues

You're right, Captain, a 1938/9 Morris 10, I think.
Also, the car turning into the side street aint a Vanguard but more than likely one of uncle Sam's. Compare the pic BEagle submitted of the Vanguard and it is not fitted with spats over the rear wheel, nor is there any sort of running board or decoration where a running board should be.
I would suggest that the car behind the Hillman is, however a Mk 1 Vanguard and the Ford prefect is post-war but pre the face lifted one that BEagle posted.

My Dad flew Stirlings into Castle Benito immediately after VE-Day. Didn't it become Wheelus AFB rather than Tripoli International? He has great stories of taking off in the summer with all the engine temps in the red and there being a vineyard full of aircraft that had failed to make it at the end of one of the runways.

I advised by e-mail the originator of this article about this thread here on PPRuNe and received this reply :

Quote:

Thanks for your email. I was interested to read the comments.

Horus is right, it may have been a transcription error.

You may like this picture of "Flight Arrivals" at Kano

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rabinal...57594285691385
/

and there are some more cars in the adjacent "Nigeria" set.

It is very nice to have the flight timetable. I went on this route
on these and similar aircraft about 6 or 8 times in the 1950s. Later
on they were using Britannias ("the whispering giant")

It was very nice for me to see the desert crash landing write-up of the Horus and the accident report. I remember at the time my folks talking about a Hermes that had got lost over the Sahara "because of a failed compass", and air travel then for a timid 10 year-old involved a fair amount of anxiety. I remember on an Argonaut, approaching Kano from Lagos in a mighty thunderstorm, having my stomach really left behind in the up and down draughts. I also remember a lightening flash outside and hearing the bang over the engine noise, and then noticing that the outermost of the three wing-tip dischargers was completely missing.

Even to this day I am a bit anxious flying in cloud.

I recently came Qantas QF1 (747-400) and was impressed with the diversions around the storms, and the lightning flashes on the horizon more frequently than one a second...

You might like to post this email

The photo of Kano airport with the man with the long horn looks familiar. Did we discuss it here a while back ?

V8 Pilot, loads in Nigeria then