Suggestions welcome
 

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....daf014ca06.jpg

Asking for a frined: Any suggestions of type and likey year of ops for these three?


https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....1eb21ef979.jpg
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....71d2a62af8.jpg

Middle - Blackburn Beverley when preserved at Museum of Army Transport, Beverley. Now moved to Fort Paull and the only survivor.
Other two are an Andover and Hercules...

Hard to be sure, but looks like a 46 Squadron tail badge on the Andover, so likely taken in the late '60s.

Grand, thanks for the ID. I knew the Herc but not the other two. I am amused that the men standing around the Herc and Andover are not concerned about their hearing! I confess, I did know that they were taken in Anguilla in 1970. The man who took them was in the Royal Engineers and involved in construction a new pontoon and other items.

Treadi,

That photo wasn't taken at the Beverley museum. It looks more like XH124 at Hendon that was subsequently scrapped. You're quite right that XB259 was at Beverley and as the sole survivor is now at Fort Paull.

CAEBr

Agree with the Hendon location as that looks like the later refurbished Graham White shed in the background.

Rob

Sorry, yes you are right, that doesn't look anything like the Beverley at Hendon as I remember it in front of the main entrance, but it looks as though they moved it several times between it's arrival and scrapping.

Only glimpse of the Beverley at MOAT Beverley I had was the tops of the fins from a train...

It's definitely Hendon, there wasn't that much space at Beverley or any grass as I recall, just concrete.

Ex RAE Farnborough; originally sold to Autair/Court Line and delivered to Luton when retired. Shortly afterwards, Court Line went bust and the Beverley was flown from Luton to Paull airfield, Hull (670m long) in March 1974 by a crew from RAE Farnborough.

Certainly Hendon, but not the G-W building - I'm fairly certain that it's one of the 1930s buildings, currently used as the Museum workshop. I'd suggest a date between 1968 (when it arrived) and 1978, when the Battle of Britain Museum opened.

Had not heard of Fort Paull, so looked it up. Craning the Beverley in must have been sight? It's a chunk beast.

Not really relevant as it's a different airframe but I, along with many others, wonder about the long-time survival prospects of XB259 at Fort Paull.
I understand the reasons for wanting it there, close to where it was built, but it's also close to a saltwater estuary.
I believe Elvington offered it a home at the time and I can't help thinking it would have had a better chance of a long life-span there.

Don't forget it went to Leconfield for many years when Paull closed so it must have been dismantled and 'roaded' for both moves.

Great photos, thanks for sharing them. Going off-topic a little: anyone know the reason, if any, for the white area around the cockpit on all three machines? Looks at odds with the camouflage on the rest of the aircraft?

I believe it was meant to keep the flight deck a bit cooler than it otherwise would have been.

It was indeed dismanted twice, though it's a tad misleading to say it went to Leconfield as the Museum of Army Transport was in fact bang in the centre of Beverley, where the Flemingate shopping centre now is.

There's a good view of the aircraft (and the Minster) in this video:

Thanks - it was ridiculously big!

Re the RAF Andover. I recall seeing an RAF Andover in for servicing at Woodford in 1966. Walking past the hangar I was assailed by a nose-wrinkling smell from the aircraft. Yet maintenance people working in and around the aircraft apparently accepted the smell as SOP for an RAF aircraft? That aircraft was still there several days later and the smell was overpowering. Turned out the Elsen Toilet can was full of.faeces from the time it was flown in. An industrial dispute arose on who should clean out the can. The RAF crew who had flown the Andover to Woodford or the maintenance staff? The result was an impasse for a week or so. Pretty disgusting. I don't know how it ended. Thought I would share it with readers..

So that's why they sold them to the RNZAFhttps://www.pprune.org/images/icons/46.gif

Ah yes, that makes sense. Cheers.