Thanks for the image of the Flight Bulletin Chris..loved the "please pass on quickly" note......but most of all the fact that the Steward and Stewardess were titled Mr Mason and Miss Ford .

These days it's a case it's more likely to be Gavin and Stacey.....

Because BEA abandoned aircraft names in 1960 with the advent of the new "red square" livery. All aircraft were de-named as they were repainted and the Vanguards never carried the names which had been allocated, while the Comets were never allocated names.

All the initial TriStar deliveries were short haul aircraft, and am fairly sure that as suggested above they did not carry individual names at first. But later in the 1970s with arrival of the -500s approaching, the company decided to name the entire fleet. Management hit on the idea of a staff competition for class and individual aircraft names with a prize for the best entry, probably in the form of free tickets.

Unfortunately for BA a group of staff, maybe T1 terminal staff, produced a spoof entry. Their proposal was the "British Airways Regrets" class, with individual names such as Technical Delay., Operational Reasons, Leased aircraft, Type Substitution, Unsuitable Weather (etc). None of this would have mattered too much, except the joke came to the attention of the LHR freebie newspaper Skyport which ,lacking the editorial control which BA imposed on its own newspaper, published the story on its front page much to everyone's amusement. Except presumably that of BA management, because the joke was close to the bone.

The winning entry was the English Roses class, and these names adorned the L1011 fleet until the change to the Landor livery.

B757-236 G-CPET was the a/c that flew the last passenger service, on Sat Oct 30th 2010. The aircraft had been painted in the 'British' version on the Negus colour-scheme and carried the name 'Stokesay Castle. I've attached a picture, not my own, which I found via 'Google Images'. I worked the a/c at Scottish Centre, from Dean Cross down to Honiley. It had descended to FL90, and as we weren't busy we allowed it to navigate visually on a 'sight-seeing tour'. I'm fairly certain the crew said they were trying to overfly the castle, which is near Ludlow, but the edge of controlled airspace prevented them from doing so. I remember transmitting "auf wiedersehen pet" as we transferred it to London Control.
Also, B747-136 was simply 'John Donne'......Without the 'The'.

Great piece of work putting all this together.

G-APEA was delivered in the Keyline livery with RMA Vanguard, its allocated name, on the nose:

http://aflyinghistory.com/photos/vic...rport-1963.jpg

G-APMA Edmund Halley
G-APMB Walter Gale
G-APMC Andrew Crommelin
G-APMD William Denning
G-APME John Tebbutt
G-APMF William Finley

Discoverers of astronomical comets :)

Yes, and the prime minister was referred to in the media as... "The Prime Minister."
BTW, I seem to remember asking the rear-seat pax if I could have the bulletin as a souvenir. :O

Quote from WHBM:
"If you are on BE 140 departing Heathrow 0925..."

Can't confirm that but if so the flight would have been running at least half an hour late?
According to Wiki, the Elizabethans had been replaced by Viscounts on the Rome route in 1954... :rolleyes:

So much for Wiki-wotsit's simplistic view of the world. There were some Ambassadors still scheduled on the route in early 1958 (here), though I'm sure some of the Viscount's substitutions had taken place some years earlier. They mainly seem to have been kept on the lengthy Malta run to position them out to run the Malta Airlines local routes that BEA operated under contract.

http://www.timetableimages.com/ttima...58/be58-10.jpg

Add

G-APMG John Grigg
G-ARCO John Hind
G-ARCP William Brooks

I can't find any names for the final five aircraft delivered in 1961.

Can never forget seeing G-BDXE (747-236B) in maintenance at LHR (1980'ish school visit) with some wag putting two "i"'s in between the registration DXE on the tail, giving "DIXIE", must have been its unofficial name!

Woodley's "history of BEA" has no names associated with the last five.........