Strictly speaking, the cause of TCA 810's demise was being in the wrong place and flying into a mountain.

The engine shutdown, plus turbulence and/or icing, were classed as contributory factors.

A few details.

The first QANTAS Lancastrian departed the Old Dart for delivery to Australia on the 23 April 1945, and the second the following day.

The first airline flights departed on 2 June 1945, respectively from Hurn and Sydney, and took 3 days for the journey. Services began at one per week, latter lifting to two, and finally three in 1946.

The Lancastrians were relegated to mail/freight on the route when the Constellations were introduced in Dec 1947.

I thought we had established that Qantas didn't take delivery of their own Lancastrians until 1947, with the joint BOAC/Qantas service prior to then being operated by BOAC aircraft ?

Or are you thinking of the BOAC aircraft being positioned to Australia in order to inaugurate the Sydney-London service at the same time as the outbound inaugural ?

Hi Dave. From "Flight" 3 May 1945.Being ex BOAC aircraft actual ownership of the aircraft would be an interesting question, as BOAC had a 50% stake in QEA. Were they "lent" to QEA who then painted them in their livery and Australian registration?

BOAC's 21 Lancastrians were all registered on 1st December 1944, and all remained on the British register until withdrawn from service, apart from the previously-mentioned three that went to Qantas in 1947.

So none of the aircraft flying the route in 1945 would have been VH-registered.

The Daily Telegraph report on the inaugural flight was quoted in a Rolls-Royce ad in the July 19th 1945 edition of Flight:

"A British Overseas Airways Corporation Lancastrian plane inaugurated the London-Auckland service by creating a record for the 13,300 mile flight of 53 hrs 13 min".

https://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarch...earch=auckland

There is certainly some confusion DaveThe first London to Sydney scheduled service was carried out by G-AGLS departing on 28 May 1945.

The QEA aircraft came from BOAC stock, so the question is when did they assume the VH- registration?

1947 we believe.

I presume the above piece should have read "a Qantas-crewed plane ...".

May/June 1945 would have been a time when communications from Sydney to a London-based magazine would have been pretty difficult. The Japanese were still in full control of Singapore, I guess the Lancastrian had to do a nonstop from Colombo to Perth, probably at night to avoid the odd Japanese patrol aircraft which used to overfly Cocos Islands etc. The fact it was the first air-mail plane meant that any comms would either be from surface mail sent months beforehand, or a very briefly worded telegram, where the word "crewed" might have been seen as surplus :)

I wonder if the aircraft that did that proving flight out to New Zealand in May 1945 was actually the same one, after a spot of training (or requalification for any Qantas crews who were ex-RAAF on Lancasters), which made that first Qantas-crewed departure back from Sydney in early June 1945.

Regarding livery, as can be seen in the pictures above they didn't really have one, the aircraft were in natural aluminium, with just a small decal. The registration letters were probably the largest application of paint. This was standard at the time.

VH-EAS 16/7/1947: https://publicapps.caa.co.uk/docs/Hi...ial/G-AGMD.pdf
VH-EAT 12/9/1947: https://publicapps.caa.co.uk/docs/Hi...ial/G-AGML.pdf
VH-EAU 2/11/1947: https://publicapps.caa.co.uk/docs/Hi...ial/G-AGLZ.pdf

and, for completeness, the 4th (ex-Skyways) aircraft:

VH-EAV 21/1/1948: https://publicapps.caa.co.uk/docs/Hi...ial/G-AHBW.pdf

John Gunn's book "Challenging Horizons: Qantas 1939-1954" (viewable on Google Books) casts some light on the first services:

"The New Guinea service started on 2 April with DC3 aircraft. A few days later, on 9 April, [Captain Russell] Tapp left England in the first QEA [Qantas Empire Airways] Lancastrian. Fysh confirmed to McMaster [the two founders of Qantas] that the Lancastrian service would start from England on 31 May and from Sydney on 2 June. The second Lancastrian delivery flight inder Capt. O.F.Y. Thomas left England on 24 April ..."

However two accompanying photos show a Lancastrian at Sydney/Mascot and Brisbane/Archerfield in April 1945 which appears to be VD238/KZS in RAF markings - the aircraft that had been registered as G-AGLS in December 1944!

The plot thickens ...

The change to VH registration is obviously an outcome of the government nationlising QANTAS in 1947. QANTAS Empire Airways (QEA) was formed in 1934 with 49% holding by both airlines, with 2% held by a neutral party. Since they are referred to as QANTAS aircraft from the beginning of operations I wonder did they carry QANTAS livery, even though they were G- registration?

The crew for the first flight departing Australia were Captain O. F. Y. Thomas; first officer, D. S. Shannon; navigator. -B. S. Walker; radio operator. K. O'Dwyer, flight steward, J. Martin, Reserve personnel: Captain E. R. Nicholl; first officer, F. N. Davis; and navigator, G. A. Hoare. Just looking at a photo of the aircraft and it carries the code VD238 (G-AGLS) and the letters KZ just visible on the fuselage. Yet "Flight" had a photo of AGLS supporting it's article about the first flight departing London on the 28 May. Can't have been AGLS, use of stock photo? So your book is right Dave.

Top right corner of page Dave. You need to blow it up some what.

http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/ar...6-05|||sortby#

"Brisbane Sees Fast Airliner"
 

Another newspaper cutting that muddies the waters even more, from the Brisbane Courier Mail, 30 April 1945::

"Australia's fastest civil transport plane, the Lancastrian, was visited by hundreds of sightseers when it made a brief visit to Brisbane vesterdav. One of five machines of this type acquired by Qantas Empire Airways to inaugurate the 70-hour flights between Sydney and London, in June ..."

30 Apr 1945 - BRISBANE SEES FAST AIRLINER - Trove

The "five" is also quoted in a "Flight" article. Maybe that was the plan at the start, but didn't come to fruition. The photo I posted earlier of AGML was taken in 1946 and although the caption says BOAC, it was a QANTAS aircraft - whatever that means. ;) I note it carries no livery as well - question answered.

Are you thinking of this well-known photo:

http://www.mediastorehouse.com/p/164...ow-9893303.jpg

It shows G-AGLS departing from Heathrow on 28 May 1946 (three days before a still under-construction Heathrow officially opened for business), bound for Australia.

But the Mascot and Archerfield photos in Gunn's book were just before the May/June 1945 inaugurals (which would have used Hurn/Bournemouth before Heathrow opened).

So G-AGLS, although first registered to BOAC in December 1944, flew wearing its previous RAF serial VD238/KZS until at least the middle of 1945, but was wearing its civil registration by the time Heathrow opened in 1946, if not before. I believe that was also true of some or all of its other Lancastrians.

Incidentally, here's a document that identifies four of the mysterious five pre-1947 "QEA Lancastrians", based on the BOAC maintenance "Fleet Position" returns:

http://www.ab-ix.co.uk/boacfleetlist.pdf

It lists all 21 Lancastrians in the fleet at the time, with the note "for QEA" against G-AGLS/T/W and Z.

So we're getting closer. :O

Qantas at War by Hudson Fysh lists their five Lancastrians as---
G-AGLS/G-AGLT/G-AGLW/G-AGLY/G-AGLZ

A quick scan through the Air-Britain Big Book (BCARs 1919 - 1999) shows the following:

G-AGLZ to VH-EAU
G-AGMD to VH-EAS
G-AGML to VH-EAT
G-AHBW to VH-EAV

A check through the Lancastrian aircraft registration documents on the CAA G-INFO site is in total agreement.

There is no evidence of foreign registration on the documents for G-AGLS, G-AGLT, G-AGLW or G-AGLY.

Yes, see posts #180, #205 and #208.

I was merely referring to Post 213 above. I'll get back in my box and shut up!

I've just been browsing this interesting thread again and noticed this comment about the BSAA aircraft with only nine seats. Checking my fleet details reveals this could only have been one of two aircraft. BSAA only bought four of the Lancastrian II (with nine seats) and only two of those were subsequently used, with the others being broken up for spares. Therefore your flight must have been in either G-AKMW 'Star Bright' or G-AKTB 'Star Glory'. All the other BSAA Lancastrians used on passenger flights were the thirteen seat Lancastrian III. The two Lancastrian IV aircraft they owned were used for freight on the Berlin Airlift.

I must admit to being a bit jealous!
Ed

Indeed. Me too!

Could I ask for the seat layout BSAA?