IOM DH89-A
 

Hi folks, today I saw this picture and learnt that the service was operated from Blackpool. Can anyone give any more details about when and for how long this service operated? I understand that Ronaldsway was still part of a sheep farm then?? This was just snapped from their album, click on the thumbnail to see picture.Thanks.
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According to "Manx Aviation in War and Peace" by Gordon Kniveton 1985, an excellent reference work:

G-AGUP was operated just after the end of WWII by Isle of Man Air Services to join two others providing services to/from Liverpool and Belfast from Ronaldsway then (until January 1946) HMS Urley, Routes were extended to include Blackpool and Manchester. Services ceased on 1 February 1947 when the nationalisation of all airlines to create BEA occurred. BEA took over all IoM scheduled services in the summer of 1947. I have no idea what happened in the brief period between stop and start although it seems BEA took on the Rapides.

There's a lot more in the book but it is no longer in print.

My father and I certainly flew from the Isle of Man to Liverpool in a Rapide in 1946 but I can't be more precise than that. We were visiting my older half-brother who was a Civil Engineer building an aerodrome there but I can't say which.
We'd crossed from Fleetwood in rough weather and even a fairly tight Yorkshireman couldn't face that again - particularly with a small boy to look after!

I am pretty sure that is the BEA logo on the tail of G-AGUP.

The family tell me that their father (the boy in the picture) said that the aircraft had to buzz the landing strip to ensure all the sheep were out of the way...

Dunno about the sheep, maybe grazing was allowed but I doubt it as the reports I have read suggested that the movements/passenger numbers through the Isle of Man at that time rivalled those through Croydon (wherever that is...).

I have an interest in this subject because about this time my mum used to be a hostess with Lancashire Airways whose duties involved weighing the pax and escorting them to their Rapide. But as the aircraft carrying capacity was much limited, the hostess never flew!

That's a good one, Haven't a clue! The family also told me of using a seaplane from Blackpool?

Interesting thread as I started "hanging over the fence" at Squires Gate (Blackpool) around 1954 so I might have seen your mum loading one of the LAC Rapides. Rather ironically I still help out at Duxford loading the Classic Wings Rapides, one of which is G-AKIF which was owned by Manx Airlines from 10/47 to 10/58 and was a regular on the Blackpool -IOM service. I don't remember a seaplane service from Blackpool around that time and due to the nature of the beach at Blackpool I would think it rather unlikely. Happy Days though and the sun always shone!

That's a nice thought VictorGolf but she'd stopped working by the time I was born in 1953... And she was working at the Isle of Man end of the service. But I should be visiting Duxford in a couple of weeks time so I will take a nostalgic look at your Rapide if it is there. I hadn't realised it's Manx Airlines connection.

Paxboy I am travelling until Monday next week, but I will consult "The Book" when I get back; I know there is a reference to seaplane operations but I can't remember specifics.

Thanks Haven't. The memories cannot be verified as the boy in the picture is himself now gone but, apparently, he spoke about seaplane service - may/may not have been Blackpool.

G-AGUP, c/n 6911, was ordered for the RAF (serial NR847) but not delivered due to the end of the war, eventually it was civilianised and sold, as new, to IOMAS on 20 December 1945, as their last aircraft acquisition. The fleet was integrated with BEA on 1 Feb 1947, and it ran on with them until 1952 when it was sold to Jersey Airlines. Having been in Ivory Coast, Africa, for a while it ended up in France where it was scrapped in the mid-1960s.

IOMAS disappeared into BEA, and two days before the merger, on 29 January 1947, the Chairman, Read, gave a party for the staff, a number of whom had served throughout the war, when they carried on the scheduled service, one of very few allowed to continue in wartime. Their main technical and engineering base was at Liverpool Speke. After the BEA acquisition the same staff, and to some extent aircraft, carried on. There was much opposition from companies and staff to the takeover, until the latter realised that BEA paid on a national pay scale, determined in London, which was well above what they had previously earned !

1946 was thus their only postwar summer season, for which they had three Rapides (Wikipedia incorrectly states four), plus they hired in additional aircraft at weekends. After the merger BEA put DC-3s on their main IOM flights, but a whole range of independents were allowed to run summer services from lesser points which BEA did not serve, and this included Blackpool, initially transferred with IOMAS but given up by BEA after 1948. Lancashire took over the route next summer, but had been doing charters on the route previously, and in fact the scheduled operators made considerable use of subchartered aircraft from independent companies to cover the high season summer operations.

Regarding the logo visible on G-AGUP, I can't say. It's not BEA's of the era, which looked like a key, with wings above and BEA below. IOMAS seems to have had multiple logos, one was a wing with a circled A through it, another is bars through a Manx three-legged crest. But this one seems different again.

1932 appears to be the heyday of the flying boat on the Isle of Man run. Not one but two airlines on the route both operating SARO Cutty Sarks... G-AAIP was operated by Isle of Man Air Services from Liverpool (where ??) and G-ABBC by British Amphibious Air Lines Ltd based at Squires Gate although they picked up passengers on the foreshore at Blackpool. Both services only lasted the one season.

Strangely G-INFO only shows G-AAIP as being registered on 24 May 33. My copy of AB's British Civil Aircraft registers G-AAAA - G-AAZZ tells me the a/c flew for the first time on 04 July 29.

The boy in the photo was born in July 1941 and he looks to be about five so, with the information from WHBM, summer 1946 would look right.

Planemike That certainly fits with the story I heard.

http://www.frpilot.com/Dad/G-AHXW.jpg

WHBM: I really don't need to get into a discussion about the BEA logo in the early days of the Rapide after WW II but here is a photograph of G-AHXW which is exactly as I remember seeing the BEA Rapides at Renfrew in the early 1950s. The photograph comes from my Air-Britain "Rapide Book".

As it so happens, the DH Rapide was the first multi-engined aircraft that I flew in my 53 years of professional flying

I can't see the image in JW411's post but have found this shot of BEA Rapide G-AHGH at Ronaldsway in 1949 with the same logo as the original post, so I presume the photo was taken in BEA's time. Could it be around his 6th birthday in summer '47 ?

WHBM:

I've just re-posted the photograph of G-AHXW. Hopefully you will be able to see it now.

What was the seating capacity? Two flight crew? No hostie!

The ones that I have been involved with (not BEA) had one in the cockpit and eight seats in the cabin.