BEA Vickers Vanguard
 

Were the Merchantman freighter conversions done at Heathrow?

At least some were. Bay 20, IIRC.

First one was done by Aviation Traders at Southend (G-APEM)

Thanks.I have a Vanguard window but tracing which aircraft it came from is impossible.

Wiki says two done by Aviation Traders, the other seven were completed by BEA using ATL kits.

(My mate converted his Airfix Vanguard kit in his bedroom using plans in some modelling mag article circa 1975 - looked very nice too when he finished it in the Speedjack scheme.)

Bay 20 ?
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....e1b82d7eba.jpg

Yes, that's Bay 20 (southernmost of the 5 bays facing Eastchurch Road). Bay 16 (the northernmost) was the paint bay.

All long gone, of course.

Spent some of my post Apprenticeship months there on; the other major job was cutting the outer off skin, in areas of the fuselage that had de-laminated, then fitting repair inserts and doublers.

Were the Merpati Vanguards converted there, or was that just heavy maintenance, no conversion. I can't recall if they had windows or not!

Merpati's Vanguards were passenger aircraft - 4 ex BEA/BA and 7 former Air Canada aircraft.

RE. Vanguard differences, I was once told that the BEA ones used OM15/ DTD585, etc., hydraulic fluid and the TCA ones used Skydrol. I think this is highly unlikely as all the components would have to have different types of seals.
Can anyone confirm please?

I have a window from a BEA example but don't know which aircraft exactly.

From those days, I understood that to be the case.

BEA Vickers Vanguard
 

Ref the Merpati Vanguards, the first two were a 951 on dry lease and a 952 on a wet lease. The 952 used skydrol,, the 951 dtd585. The 951 was G-APEF and still had the red wings of the BEA paint scheme. I last saw it parked on the cross runway at Kemayoran airport. The 952 came with a complete spares package in the form of a complete aircraft which was parked at the north end of the airport. UK expats maintained the 952, locals the 951. The routes were Jakarta-Medan, Jakarta Surabaya and Jakarta-Surabaya-Makassar- Biak.

Interesting.

TCA/Air Canada's Vanguards overlapped with their Viscounts for many years - I wonder if the latter used Skydrol too ?

Never came accross a Viscount using Skydrol.
When we were getting the Electra at Channex someone ordered some Skydrol. It sat in the stores for years as the Electra used DTD585/H5606/OM15 (Red stuff).

Aviation traders
 

Did this company design and build their own aircraft once?

Yes, the Accountant. The figures didn't seem to add up though...

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....ed43c950e1.jpg
Plus the Carvair which was a DC-4 with a new nose and a DC-7 fin...

DC-7C fin. The -7 and the -7B had the DC-6 fin.

I have always wondered about the enormeous fin of the Accountant. Probably of the smal momentum arm of such a short aircraft, is that correct? I also wonder about the long tail cone, looks like a submarine detection system. Anybody an idea?