Planemike - good pic, thanks for sharing. I see the ex-bomb bay made a handy storage place for the spare wheel!

Are you sure that's not nose-gear, for the days when it's trimmed nose-heavy?;)

Herod - from what I've read about BSAA's safety record, anything was possible :eek:

'Stardriver' sounds like a name BSAA would have given to its pilots though :D

Thanks Planemike,
Does anyone recognise where that picture was taken?
Those houses in the background might be recognisable to someone...?

Phoenix. I agree with you. Reading "Star Dust Falling", the fatality figures are horrendous.

For every 100 million passenger miles flown by BOAC, 2.3 passengers had died in crashes, all North American carriers averaged 3.78. BSAA's figure was 61.6.

Or put another way, with BOAC, one passenger had died for every 18,900 flown. BSAA was killing one passenger for every 385 that they flew.

I think Don Bennett had a lot to answer for.

Oh, and thanks for the "Stardriver" link. The reason for that is that my airline at the time I put up a sub-name featured stars as part of its logo and callsign.

Anybody Know where BSAAs Base was before it came to Heathrow looks like they were preparing a brand new Lancastrian ] for a proving flight and the wheel [which looks like a Lanc main wheel for ballast]and I'm sure they wouldn't fly passengers with bomb gear on board fuel tanks yes, and the nose cone is missing looking hard at the photo it doesn't look like the area of Number 1 hanger BSAAs base at Heathrow , BOAC were in 2,3,and 4 hangers next door

Langley, perhaps ?

Avionic / Dave Reid - can't answer for the background in that photo, but think Heathrow WAS BSAA's first airport. See this extract from 'Star Dust Falling':

'It had aircraft. It had pilots. All BSAA needed now was an airport from which to operate. Bennett knew exactly which one he wanted: out to the west of London was a new airfield still in the throes of development. There were no buildings to speak of or hangars for that matter but in time it would prove itself, Bennett was sure of that. The only immediate problem was the condition of the runway, which was covered with builders' materials. One morning in December 1945 he turned up to survey it. He was immediately stopped by the building foreman who wanted to know what he was doing there. Bennett asked if, in exchange for a few quid, he could get the runway cleared.

The foreman agreed that it could be done. The next day Bennett flew down from the A.V. Roe factory at Waddington in the first of the Lancastrians. There was no one manning the control tower that day because the control tower had not yet been built. Bennett simply looked out of the window to find his way to the airfield. Once down he went immediately to the Air Ministry in the centre of London and baldly announced to the civil servant in charge that he was ready to start services from the new airfield. The official demurred. BSAA was listed to fly from Hurn, near Bournemouth on the south coast. And in any case, the London airport wasn't ready for aircraft. Yes it was, Bennett said. He'd just landed there. And as he'd have to take off again, the service might as well start from there. The weary official agreed. Bennet had contrived to make BSAA the very first airline to operate out of that new London airfield which, in just a few years, would become known as Heathrow.'

Oh and Herod - another quote from 'Star Dust Falling' - already posted by me on this thread, but what the hell:

BOAC will take good care of you.
BEA will get you there and back again.
BSAA will inform your next of kin.

The image has been discussed on the FlyPast forum and it has been identified as Heathrow Northside...........

I know it's in the book but this all sounds a bit far fetched, doesn't it ? If nothing else BSAA built up their substantial maintenance base with hangars (and Bennett's office) at Langley, a couple of miles west. They would ferry across to Heathrow for operations. As is well known Bennett launched the first Heathrow flight on 1 January 1946, at the formal opening ceremony with government officials and ministers present; that would be unlikely if just a couple of weeks before Bennett was having to resort to these oddball tactics to convince Whitehall.

It must have been taken early 47 as when I arrived 47/48 the maintenance area with 4 hangers had been built and the North Side was taken over by American, European and UK airlines for arrivals and departures no heavy maintenance was carried out apart from turn round defects, all BOAC and BSAA were towed off to the maintenance area defects cleared and towed back again and refuelled on North Side, for foreign a/c they went to the south side of the airfield for heavy defects [engine changes etc.].One glorious memory was if I went over to the North Side in the morning the Pan Am and American airlines cabin crews used to give me copies of American newspapers with the funnies the odd pack of chewing gum and DONUTS, bliss , we were still on strict rationing in those days

I don't understand that. If there are 2.3 fatalities every 100,000,000 miles wouldn't the fatality rate be just under 50,000,000 miles, not 18,900? (actually 43,478,261)

Don't know; I'm just quoting the book. Don't forget though that one figure is passenger MILES flown, the other is passenger NUMBERS

Acquired a copy of Both Feet in the Air by Archie Jackson yesterday (thanks Phoenix). Have only had time for a brief look so far but he (born 1922) certainly flew some interesting types.
He records that he needed to do five take-offs and landings in a Lancastrian in order to be qualified on type.

In the Propliner article referred to earlier, author Don Brown, who was taken on at BSAA to manage pilot documentation records, wrote of some decidedly unofficial previous practices. One man was taken on from the RAF as an FO, qualified on Lancasters. One day he was assigned to a York to take it down to Africa. When he pointed out what appeared to be a scheduling error he was told "Oh, a York's not much different to a Lanc, on you go". With passengers on board !

Thanks WHBM,
I still haven't found my copy of that yet - another read I am looking forward too!
Ed

Heathrow a.k.a LAP North 1946
 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/769113...n/photostream/
The Lanc or Lancastrian with the spare wheel in the bomb bay could be as early as 1946. Stephen Greensted has a set of a Lancastrian carrying King George of Greece from L.A.P North in September 1946
Click L or R on the lightbox display for the other pics

Excellent set of photos!
Thanks for providing the link.
Ed

Went to see a film evening at a local aviation club last night and there was some glorious colour footage (original film on a big screen rather than a video copy) of a Handley Page Halton being handed over by Sir Fred HP to BOAC at Radlett. After the handover, a group of dignitaries - including the local mayor in all his regalia - were taken for a short hop around the area. As would be expected, almost all of the pilots on hand for the event had their WW2 medals on their uniforms.
After the aircraft returned to Radlett and the passengers disembarked, the aircraft was then seen to depart again - presumably for LAP - flying past a line-up of RAF Halifaxes seen alongside the runway as it climbed out. Nice! I wonder if there is any similar Lancastrian footage out there somewhere.

More LAP North (Heathrow) 1948
http://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/KL8AAO...A0/s-l1600.jpg

This is 10 minutes of what LHR looked like in 1946, including a range of the interesting types around at the time.

The opening, and departure of the first BSAA Lancastrian flight, with Bennett at the controls, on 1 Jan 46, is at 4.45 in the film.


London Airport | The National Archives

Fascinating. All those construction workers, and not a hard hat or hi-vis vest in sight. The removal of people from their homes though, hasn't changed.

LAP Film
 

Excellent piece of film WHBM - many thanks for the link.
Having seen Herod's comment before watching it, I couldn't help but wonder if the guys with the pneumatic drills were wearing ear plugs or not...but perhaps they were already stone deaf after doing that job for years!

Any idea what airfield this was taken at?
 

Waddington perhaps?

Sadly "Star Dust Falling" is responsible for a lot of misinformation about BSAA and is something of a character assassination of Don Bennett. Bennett's son was horrified when he read the book (having co-operated with the author fully at the research stage) as he felt his father was seriously misrepresented.

As for the accident figures, yes they are unquestionably very serious for BSAA, but the figures in the book are not accurate. From official sources the true figures are - for every 100 million miles flown by BOAC, 4 passengers had died (not 2.3), the figure was 11 for BEA and 48 for BSAA (not 61.6). Similarly, with BOAC one passenger had died for every 9,733 flown (not 18,900) and for BSAA the figure was 762 (not 385).

Not sure of the airfield I'm afraid, although it's quite possibly Waddington as that's where this particular Lancaster was modified in early 1946. However it's a very nice photo of Lancaster 'Star Gold' and one I don't remember seeing before. Interesting.

Hello BSAA1947,
Thanks. It is interesting that you say that aircraft was converted at Waddington.
I have long wondered if that kind of work was actually done at Waddington or nearby Bracebridge Heath and Waddington was merely the runway used to position the aircraft in and out. I know numerous aircraft were towed between the two sites via the A15 but I have never seen a picture of a Lancastrian making that particular journey.
Ed

Your information may be more reliable than mine as I can't find my sources at the moment but I had noted in the BSAA fleet list on my website that the aircraft (a Lancaster remember, not a Lancastrian in this case) had been fitted with a Lancastrian style nose by A.V. Roe at Waddington. It had originally been loaned to BSAA and was only bought by them at the end of March 1947 when it was dismantled to be used for spares.

From Jackson's British Civil Aircraft Since 1919:

"Early in 1946 the British South American Airways Company took delivery of six Lancaster Is from the Ministry of Supply. Four of these were commissioned as freighters, the conversions being carried out at the works of A. V. Roe and Co. Limited at Bracebridge Heath".

G-AGUK was one of the four.

Ah, good, thanks Dave. I'll update the fleet list on my website when I get a moment. AirportsEd, it looks like your information was correct!

For those interested in BSAA Lancasters
Sorry about the quality. Notice the bomb bay doors. Taken in Montevideo about 1947.
http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x...psue4s71ao.jpg
Mike

Thanks BSAA / Dave / Mike.
Was G-AGUM also one of the four Lancasters converted at Bracebridge?
Ed

The batch converted at Bracebridge Heath were:

G-AGUJ "Star Pilot", ex PP689
G-AGUK "Star Gold", ex PP688
G-AGUL "Star Watch", ex PP690
G-AGUM "Star Ward", ex PP751

The other two of the six purchased that weren't converted to freighters were:

G-AGUN, ex PP744, later to BOAC as G-AHVN, then to Flight Refuelling
G-AGUO, ex PP746, subsequently returned to the RAF

Thanks Dave.
I had had no idea that any Lancasters were converted at Bracebridge Heath, my Waddington guess re the photo is purely based upon the buildings you can see in the background.
Ed

Off The Beam
 

Hello Mike6567,
Regarding the Off The Beam book by Robert Chandler you mentioned a while back, do you have a copy, if so, would you recommend it?
I wondered if it had much Lancastrian or indeed flying content.
Regards,
Ed

Dave, following conversion did they then become officially recognised as "Lancastrians"? In the Lancaster/Lancastrian listings I have they get no mention, other than noting the relevant Lancaster aircraft took up a civil registration.

No, the Lancastrian name was only applied to the passenger conversions. Those four freighters remained Lancasters.

Just as an aside, if you take look at the ARB paper record sheets for G-AGUJ, K, L & M all are shown as "seventeen seater monoplanes". There seems little doubt they were only ever used as freighters.

Ed Re "Off The Beam" by Robert Chandler
The book has a few chapters on his time with BSAA and BOAC. Some interesting and amusing anecdotes. He was on the first flight from Heathrow January 1st 1946 in "Star Light" and there are several pages on this.
Not a lot of specific Lancastrian content.
Mike

Off The Beam
 

Thanks Mike,
I'd like to read those anecdotes so I will get a copy from the river site.
Regards,
Ed