Douglas DC-4s had round windows. But Canadair's pressurised version with Merlins, the C-4 Argonaut, had square ones.

It was easy to be fooled in in thinking some DC-4 had square windows. Quite a few small (and shadier) operators painted squares around the round windows of their DC-4 in an effort to deceive people into thinking it was a DC-6. They were pretty artistic efforts. The black rubber deicer boots on the wings and empennage of the DC-4 were of course a dead giveaway as the DC-6 had heated leading edges of dural.
By the way, "square" windows were not square. They had generous radius's in their corners eliminating the stress riser of a sharp "square" corner.

As an aside, must admit I missed your earlier reference to "RRAF". Yes, I remember seeing the odd C4 at New Sarum in the early 1960s, And once flew from JNB to SAY in an EAAC Argonaut.

No. The DC7C acquisition was the cause of much airline-government-media acrimony, only finally justified by the US dollar earning advantage to a UK airline of having competitive aircraft with the US operators by the mid-1950s, where BOAC were still stuck with first-generation L-749 Connies and spacious but lumbering and unrelable Stratocruisers, both of which sometimes required two fuel stops between London and New York, which the DC7C could do nonstop. The DC7Cs were only deployed on US routes, and those routes to Bermuda/ Caribbean which routed through New York, and which mainly carried Americans.

BOAC's fleet had been in a considerable mess in the earlier 1950s, with most of their types (Argonaut honourably excepted) giving serious problems, then within a few years 1957-60 a whole lot of replacement types finally came into service together, giving further difficulties. The DC7C, the Comet 4, the Britannia 100, Britannia 300 and the substantial initial 707-420 fleets all arrived in quantity pretty much together.

gruntie, you might note the OP said,Memory is a terrible thing, and may or may not be accurate. I recall being at a reunion and saying to a fellow course mate "Remember when we...". He later produced documentary evidence that my memory was complete bollox, yet I would have sworn on the proverbial stack of bibles as to the veracity of the story. About the only way to answer the OP would be to access the movements at Essendon airport on the day.

My money is on the Britannia, as throughout the Britannia's lifespan, the engine icing condition remained a "continual potential hazard" that flight crews ultimately learned to manage with a "high-lo" flight regime that minimized the danger.

DC-5 also had round wondows, see pichttps://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.gmf...0aa1775b18.jpg

Is that possible? do movement records go back as far as 1960? How does one query them?
I have a tentative arrival date of 7/7/1960 from the national archives (https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/) with a record that states "travelled per MIQAN flight" whatever that means. Unfortunately there is a lot of unprocessed information by the NAA and online information is scant.

Also, don't take the "square" windows thing too seriously as she was more interested in the people she was travelling with rather than the plane itself.

Just a guess MIgrantQANtas flight

CC

Funny how these things pan out. Recently I discovered my mothers arrival card in the Australian digital archives which says she arrived in Melbourne (Essendon Airport) on the 7th July, 1960 in an aircraft registered as G-ANBH which is a Bristol Britannia.


https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....09e0bd43db.jpg

Again, thanks to all who provided advice.

Cheers.

G-ANBH old chap - fab photo

[QUOTE......... lumbering and unrelable Stratocruisers[/QUOTE],

Do you mind ! extract from my logbook ..... 22nd January 1959, Boeing 377 G-ANTY "Coriolanus" Barcelona - Accra .... engine failure 4 hours South of Barcelona, diverted to Tripoli. 25th January, 1959 .... Tripoli - Accra.

Providing that there was enough engine oil available, I recall one of he DC-7C Flt. Engineers telling me that the DC-7C range was limited by the oil consumption, not the fuel load available.

I believe Britannia 102 G-ANBG was charted to fly the English Football team somewhere, and they figured that NBG was not a suitable acronym, and it was re-registered as a result ?

I'm pretty sure that the Brit. 102;s flew regular services to Oz, something like a 28 day trip for the crews, slipping at all the various stops en-route, and when the Boeing 707 was introduced BOAC started "posting" crews to Oz for 3 months, to fly part way back to London and make the London based crew pattern shorter. Good Old Days.

ExSp33db1rd,

Why are you new here? I've been wondering where you have been - hope all is OK.